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Work Your Proper Hours Day

Work Your Proper Hours Day (it was 22 Feb in 2008) is the day when the average person who does unpaid overtime finishes the unpaid days they do every year, and starts earning for themselves. We think that's a day worth celebrating, but it's an issue that doesn't go away when the day is over.

check your balance
the Work / Life Map
Breaktime game

Nearly five million people in the UK regularly do unpaid overtime, giving their employers an average £4,955 of free work a year. If you're one, why not take some time to reflect on how well (or badly) you're balancing your life?

Regular over-long hours are not at all good for us; they cause stress; they're bad for our health; they wreck relationships; they make caring for children or dependents more difficult; and tired, burnt-out staff are bad for business.

People do long hours for a variety of very different reasons. Find out more about the UK's long hours culture.

Work Your Proper Hours Day for 2008 was 22 February, but your own pay day may come earlier or later, depending on the hours you work above your contracted hours. Use our online unpaid overtime calculator to find out when you can celebrate paying off your long hours debt. And if it's coming up soon, be spontaneous. Take your own Work Your Proper Hours Day. Take a proper lunchbreak and leave work on time to enjoy your evening - You deserve it!

Put yourself on the map!

We're building a big interactive map of the UK's attitudes to work / life balance. Take our quiz to find out what your workplace style is, and then add yourself to the map to see how you stack up against everyone else. Or check the map, to see what others have said.

Tackle your own hours problems

Take our quiz to see why you might be doing such long hours, and get some pointers on how to deal with them.