Why are we working harder than ever and yet being less effective? Why do we let work bleed into family life and holidays? Britain’s work life balance is out of kilter with its European counterparts, according to new findings.

Author Ian Price was invited to work with Red C, a Manchester-based marketing agency. The team was interviewed on work life balance issues and many were too busy or exhausted to do anything in the week. The majority complained of having to cancel engagements with friends and family; those with partners or small children were not seeing as much of them as they had hoped. Ian ran a 90 minute workshop with the team and proposed 5 rules for them to follow for the next week with the aim of being more effective at work and getting more free time outside of work. A week later, he met the team again to see if his rules had helped.

Whilst writing his book The Activity Illusion, Ian collated data from over five hundred workers on the experience of managing work email both with and without BlackBerrys and measured dimensions of stress along with organisational context. “This is the first time this has been researched and shows how the way we use technology such as BlackBerry means that we are over-connected with consequences for work- life balance, resilience and productivity,” says Ian. “With such technology no longer the status symbol of senior managers in large organisations, we are all at risk of overdoing it.”