WORKERS still are waiting for their boss to leave before they head home for the day, putting in hours of needless, unproductive and unpaid overtime, usually caused by a company culture.

There are more jobs today that pay workers for the work they do (salary) rather than the hours they are in the office (wage), however, the hours workers are putting in to do the job are increasing regardless.

The average worker does 44 hours a week, compared with the fulltime standard of 38 hours.

Technology also is blurring the line between home and work, making it more confusing for workers to know when they have clocked on or off.

MORE: Sweden embraces the six-hour work day

A third of Australian workers regularly do overtime, for which about one-quarter are not compensated with time off in lieu or extra cash, Australian Bureau of Statistics research shows.

The Australia Institute senior economist Matt Grudnoff says last year it found workers donated $110 billion to their boss in unpaid overtime — more than was donated to any charity.

“It’s still a serious issue,” he says.

“We’ve found whether you work a lot of unpaid overtime has less to do with how much work you have to do and more to do with the culture of the organisation.

“There’s a lot of pressure to not be the guy who leaves early or comes in later.”

IS THIS YOU?

* Monday is the day when professionals are most likely to work overtime

* 39 per cent of professionals work the equivalent of an extra days’ work at least in overtime each week

* 22 per cent of workers who access their work’s network remotely, such as emails on mobile, do some unpaid work from home

Grudnoff says workers are not necessarily using that extra time at work to get extra work done, and so are not productive for their full time at work anyway.

“Staying in primarily because the boss will stay doesn’t help productivity,” he says.

“People would prefer to be wasting time at home than at work.”

They are not brownnosing the boss either. Grudnoff says many workers simply do not know what time they can go home.

“If you go back 20/40 years, there were a lot more jobs where ‘this is when you clock in, this is when you clock off’,” he says.

“A lot more professional jobs and a lot more salary jobs are not paid by the hour, which makes it worse.

“There’s blurring of the lines between home and work. The boss gives you a laptop or a mobile phone, you go home, log in, check emails on your phone, when an email comes in, do you answer it? Is it home time, or work time?”

DID YOU KNOW?

* 28% of organisations increased overtime in 2014-15, while only 11% decreased the amount of extra hours worked, Hays reports.

Roy Morgan Research chief executive Michele Levine says online work networks can be mutually beneficial but too few workers and employers know the full affect on staff.

“Fulltime workers are increasingly willing and able, and perhaps expected, to access their work networks remotely, whether simply to check and reply to emails while out-of-office or to perform regular duties instead of, or as well as, coming in to work,” she says.

“Wireless internet access means many employees can potentially login from anywhere on any device at any time, whether in a cafe on the weekend, when sick at home on a weekday, or even on holidays.

“It’s easy to see how this could be good and bad for both businesses and workers.”

Hays managing director Nick Deligiannis believes working extra hours may come back to bite workers and their managers, so it is best to address the reason as to why it occurs.

“If not managed carefully, overtime has the potential to cause employee stress and burnout,” he says.

“There could be a very good business case for adding addition headcount — either permanent or temporary — to get through peak periods and relieve pressure on existing staff.

“These employers also need to consider if overworked and stressed employees can really perform at their best.”

However, the longer hours may have a longer term affect than stress or burnout.

In August, The Lancet medical journal published research which found working 55 hours or more each week — equal to 11-hour days, at least — is linked to a 33 per cent greater risk of stroke and a 13 per cent increased risk of developing coronary heart disease, than working a standard 35 to 40 hour week.

The Australia Institute this month is urging workers to have the conversation with their boss around expected work hours, even if it is just to check what time they can go home each day.

They are also urging them to leave when they have done all their work and achieved what they need to.

“It’s not necessarily the boss saying ‘you must stay here and work more hours’,” Grudnoff says.

“There’s not enough communication between management and workers, between the boss and the employee.”

www.gohomeontimeday.org.au