Family life is buckling under the demands of overwork.

The UK has always had a long hour’s culture with workers putting in more hours than many of their European counterparts. Now a report published by two leading charities has shown the harm it us doing to family life.

According to the 2018 Modern Families Index compiled by work life charity Working Families and Bright Horizons the demands of the modern workplace are creating a ‘parenting penalty,’ to which many parents are responding by downshifting their careers.

Out of the cohort of parents surveyed 40% of those in full time work reported having to do extra hours, 34% of those on part time contracts were working hours equivalent to being full time. Even those parents working ‘flexibly’ many (31%) said they had little control over their hours and shift patterns.

This has an often-damaging effect on family life, with 39% if the parents questioned saying working prevented them from putting their children to bed; 47% reported not spending enough time together as a family because of work commitments.

Working long hours is impacting on the health of parents with 38% saying the hours they work prevent them from eating healthily and 42% reporting doing less exercise as a result. It also impacts on relationships with 28% citing overwork as a reason for arguing with their partner.

As a result, 18% of the parents questioned said they had deliberately stalled their careers, 11% said they had turned down a new job because of the hours involved and one in ten said they had refused a promotion for the same reason.

In a statement to the press Sarah Jackson, chief executive of Working Families said that in the current work culture ‘parenthood looks like a bad career move', because the prevailing norm is to ‘show up early, leave late and be on email out of hours'.

In the sane statement James Tugendhat, managing director of Bright Horizons said, ‘the index highlights the UK's long hours culture is putting severe strain on family life'.

Responding to the Modern Families Index pressure group The Four Day Week Campaign tweeted that it showed again ‘the impact of long hours and a lack of control over working time' have on ‘employees’ mental health and resilience’.

The changing nature of work and the seemingly unstoppable march of micromanagement are piling pressure on working families, along with our traditional long hours culture this makes for a dangerous combination.

It is hardly surprising that a significant number of parents are deciding to downshift to prioritize the wellbeing of their children and relationship. The stress experienced by those not able to do so might, in part, explain why the UK persistently lags behind its competitors in terms of productivity.

Once radical alternatives like the introduction of a four-day week are starting to look like viable alternatives to a failing status quo.