Survey Finds a Third of Americans Are Chronically Overworked [View All]

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NEW YORK (AP) - One in three American workers are chronically overworked, with job-related stress varying significantly by age, employment situation, and demands at home, according to a new survey.

The survey by the Families and Work Institute largely echoes one done by the group in 2001 which also found that a third of employees are highly overworked. But that static result obscures changes in the workplace, where some workers are more stressed even as others - particularly younger workers - are finding ways to balance the demands.

"In some sense, things are getting worse. People are working longer hours and their jobs are becoming more demanding," said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, a non-profit research group. "On the other hand, employers have become more flexible and that tends to lessen being overworked, and also, people's priorities have changed."

More than half of the 1,003 workers surveyed said they are often handling too many tasks at the same time, or are frequently interrupted during the workday or both.

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