New Zealand workers spend Thursday night at the office and Friday night at the pub, a new Regus survey on overtime habits suggests.

The global survey found New Zealand workers are most likely to work overtime or outside of normal office hours on Thursday (22 percent), closely followed by Saturday (21 percent). 

But don’t bother asking Kiwis to work late on Friday: only 7 percent said they were most likely to work overtime on this day, making it the least popular day of the week to be stuck in the office. 

John Henderson, Regus CEO Australia and New Zealand, says Kiwi workers’ overtime preferences are at odds with their international counterparts.    

“Globally, Monday was the most common day for working overtime or outside of normal hours. However, it was only fourth in New Zealand with 13 per cent of Kiwis putting in extra hours on that day,” he says.

“New Zealand workers are also more likely to fire up the laptop on Sunday (11 percent) than their international counterparts, who named it the least popular day to work overtime.”

Henderson says cultural and social factors could be behind our preferences around working hours, noting the survey found working late on Friday is also unpopular among Australian workers. 

“The results suggest Kiwis put in extra work on Thursday to make sure they can get away on time on Friday, maybe to hit the town or to head away for the weekend,” he says.

“Once they get to the weekend, New Zealanders are not averse to doing a bit of work either at home or by popping in to the office. One in three Kiwi workers said they were most likely to work overtime either on Saturday or Sunday, compared to one in six globally.” 

The Regus survey also looked at how many hours of overtime workers put in each week.

It found almost half of New Zealand respondents (49 percent) worked at least six hours extra per week, with 30 percent clocking in at least eight hours extra and 16 percent working at least 12 more hours.

One in eight workers (13 percent) said they worked less than one hour over their regular hours each week, while 8 percent ploughed through more than 15 hours of overtime per week.

The survey supports other statistics that show many New Zealanders work long hours, in line with the global figures, Henderson says.

“New Zealand workers can be relied on to work hard but they prefer to do extra hours on some days and not others. Employers need to be aware of their preferences and offer flexibility if they want to keep their workers happy.”