Managing a workaholic

It is strongly advisable for management to take active steps to regulate the working habits of employees who consistently work long hours and refuse to take holidays. Working excessive hours on a regular basis is likely to result in a reduction in quality of work and in productivity and could lead to increased absence in the long term, if the employee becomes unwell.

Statutory limit on working hours

The Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833) introduced a duty on employers to limit their workers' working hours to no more than an average of 48 hours a week, measured over a ‘reference period’ (normally 17 weeks). The UK, however, took advantage of a permitted derogation and implemented what is generally known as the ‘opt-out clause’, i.e., an option for individual employees to work longer than 48 hours a week. This means that employees who do so voluntarily can agree to exceed the average 48-hour limit by signing a document indicating their willingness to do so.

Employers must maintain a record of those who have signed such an opt-out agreement. As a result of the opt-out clause, workaholic employees are essentially granted a free hand to work as many hours as they want, unless they work for one of the enlightened band of employers that has formulated and implemented a policy to manage working hours and prevent excessive working.

It is, arguably, up to management to prevent individuals from working excessive working hours since the law does not do so directly.

The common law duty of care

One important point to consider is that, even where long hours are worked voluntarily, an employer that condones an employee's extreme working habits may be in breach of the common law duty of care that is implied into every employee's contract of employment.

If, for example, an employee's excessive hours were due to an unrealistically high workload, and if this set of circumstances were to cause the employee a build-up of stress that led to illness, the employee could bring a claim for personal injury against the employer.

Annual leave

In the absence of any arrangement or agreement to the contrary, the Working Time Regulations 1998 authorise employers to nominate specified days on which an individual must take some or all of their statutory annual leave. It follows that the manager of a workaholic employee could provide written notification that they must take leave on specified dates if, for example, the leave year runs from January, and an employee has failed to take or apply for any holiday leave by the end of September. The only condition is that the employee must be given notice of at least twice the length of the stipulated holiday period.

For example, a minimum of four weeks' notice would be necessary to require an individual to take two weeks' leave from a specified date.

Working hours policy

The best starting point for an employer to manage its employees' working hours and ensure that they are kept to a reasonable level is for it to introduce and apply a policy on working hours. The policy should make a clear statement that the employer has a responsibility to take care of employees' health and welfare and that, as part of fulfilling that duty, the employer aims to ensure that no employee works excessive hours on a regular or consistent basis.

The policy should encourage employees to achieve a work-life balance and to work no more than a defined number of hours on any one day, and no more than a set number of days in any one week, unless there are exceptional circumstances justifying a temporary need for longer hours.

The policy should further state that all employees are required to take their rest periods, rest breaks and full period of annual leave each year. Thereafter, it should be the responsibility of each line manager to ensure that the policy is translated into practice for all their staff. To achieve effective implementation of such a policy, there may first have to be a review of employees' job responsibilities and duties in order to determine if any employee is burdened with a workload that is not realistically achievable within a reasonable number of hours each week.

Targets, deadlines and available resources should form part of that review so that it can be established whether or not they are reasonable and realistic. Changes may have to be made in terms of the level of available support before anyone can reasonably be instructed to reduce their working hours.

The question of each employee's working hours and time off work is very much a management issue running alongside the duty to take care of employees' health and welfare. Once an effective policy has been implemented and employees made aware that they are expected to work reasonable hours and take proper breaks from work, it will be up to management to ensure that employees abide by the policy.