Workaholics feel guilty for ignoring families

Workaholic middle managers are damaging their health, sex lives and family relationships by spending long hours in the office, according to a study out today.

Workaholic middle managers are damaging their health, sex lives and family relationships by spending long hours in the office, according to a study out today.

The report, Married to the Job, says that workers who put in more than 48 hours a week risk arguments at home, are often too tired for sex and feel guilty about having too little time with their children.

More than half of the people who work long hours agree they are wrong to dedicate so much of their lives to work, according to the research for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. But one third of the long-hours workers are self-confessed "workaholics" who admit they have such a compulsion to work that find it difficult to stop.

For others, the workload is so relentless that they regularly have to work 10-hour days, said the author of the report, Melissa Compton-Edwards.

Of those who work long hours, eight out of 10 are married or live with partners, a most have children. Most agree their working life has a big impact at home, with partners, children and with friends.