HR professionals’ body the CIPD compared publicly available data from 25 of the 36 OECD member countries, producing a league table for each of its seven dimensions of quality jobs.

On one of the measures, work-life balance, the CIPD’s second annual UK Working Lives Survey found that the UK ranks 24th out of the 25 countries, based on a measure of how often job demands interfere with family life.

The CIPD also commissioned YouGov to poll a representative sample of over 5,000 UK workers to assess their experiences in more detail.

A quarter (24%) of respondents said they found it difficult to relax in their own time because they think about work, while 26% said their job affects their personal commitments.

Three in five said they work longer hours than they want. Almost one quarter said they overwork by ten or more hours a week. Managerial and professional workers reported the longest hours of overwork.

A third of workers considered themselves to have too much work to complete within their contracted hours. One in twenty said they were completely overloaded.

High workloads were relatively consistent in their presence across occupational groups, according to the survey, but workers in intermediate managerial, administrative and professional occupations reported higher incidence (37%) of intense working routines

The survey found that more than two in five (42%) workers in the public sector were overworked compared with around three in ten workers in other sectors.

The UK also fared badly in the international comparisons for the health and wellbeing component of good work, ranking 16th out of 25.

Asked about the impact that work has on their mental health, 40% of respondents said it was positive, while 26% said it was negative. Nearly one in three said work negatively affects their physical health, while 30% said it had a positive effect.

Two in three (66%) said they had experienced a work-related health condition in the last 12 months, with anxiety and sleep problems being two of the most common issues reported.

Employees generally reported a supportive working environment, with two-thirds saying their colleagues would not deliberately undermine them. Most were positive about their line manager, with three quarters saying their supervisor shows them respect and treats them fairly.

However, 19% said their manager or supervisor would hold their mistakes against them, and 22% said they had been excluded by managers for being different in some way.  

The UK’s best scoring good work indicator was skills, autonomy and development, for which it ranked seventh.

Overall, the best ranking countries were Switzerland, Norway and Denmark. The worst were Spain, Japan and France. Overall, the UK came in 13th place.

The CIPD’s seven dimensions of good work are:

• Pay and benefits.
• Contracts.
• Job design and the nature of work.
• Work–life balance.
• Relationships at work.
• Voice and representation.
• Health and wellbeing.