The workday might end at 5 p.m., but for many, the exhaustion lingers well into the night.

According to new research from book summary app company Headway, 60 per cent of employees say their free time is spent recovering from work instead of actually living their lives.

This kind of chronic recovery mode is more than just a personal inconvenience, it’s a business risk, says Cindy Cavoto, a certified productivity coach with Headway.

“You need the time to stop, think and iterate to come up with brilliant ideas, which simply doesn’t compute with the pressures of modern work,” she says.

The study, which surveyed 2,000 professionals in North America, paints a stark picture of today’s workplace culture. More than a third of employees have given up on self-improvement and exercise, citing a lack of time. Almost a third say they are too drained from work to spend time with friends and a quarter say they have no personality outside of work. That loss of personal investment, Ms. Cavoto says, is dragging down team performance and long-term resilience.

“Even if you cope well with stress and high pressure, there’s no time to exercise, eat well or get enough sleep when you’re spending all day working and all evening thinking about work,” she says. “Eventually, your body is going to feel it.”

Perhaps even more telling is that 25 per cent of workers feel guilty for resting. The implication? A culture that equates rest with weakness and a leadership gap when it comes to modelling balance.

“Most people don’t skip breaks and work late because they want to; they do it because they think they have to,” says Ms. Cavoto. “To force change, employers must rewrite the rules.”

That means more than just talking about wellness. According to Ms. Cavoto, it requires systemic changes such as protected breaks, enforced vacations and strict boundaries around after-hours communication. It’s not just a matter of ethics, it’s smart business.

“Businesses love to count hours, but being on the clock doesn’t mean you’re being productive,” she says. “A well-rested worker is likely to produce more output in half the time than someone suffering from burnout.”

Sixty-five per cent of workers have daydreamed about quitting just to focus on themselves. That’s not laziness – it’s a signal of unmet needs. The study suggests that workers don’t want to abandon purpose, but they are desperate for balance.

“If employers stop cutting into our free time, that burning, widespread desire to quit will undoubtedly fade,” Ms. Cavoto says.

The takeaway? Overwork isn’t just bad for people, it’s bad for business. And reframing rest as a strategy, not a setback, may be the most productive move a company can make.

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