The paper examines the phenomenon of office workers’ overwork. Statistical data demonstrates that modern Russians tend to work more than 40 hours a week, thereby exceeding the legal time allowance that traces its roots back to a period when largescale manual labor was the norm. Increasing proportions of tertiary and quaternary sectors in the Russian economy suggests that the “normal” 40-hour work week is a redundant constraint and workers perceive the “norm” differently. According to the existing literature, overwork can reflect a worker’s personality traits, and institutional or economic changes.
In the research article, an analysis of the motives of overwork is provided. Also, evidence of the differences in perceptions of what constitutes a “normal” work day and mental borders between work and overwork is presented.
It appears that employees perceive overwork not only as overtime work (the number of hours that they work in addition to their contractual hours), it can also be understood as a work-life imbalance, undesirable dramatic change in lifestyle due to the demands of work, and a psychological and/or physical fatigue that can lead to the loss of a “zest for life.”
The following motives were identified: economic (working additional hours for career advancement, salary growth, or at least job security in the future), social (adherence to corporate norms and values), and psychological (escaping from family problems). Special attention was paid to the analysis of institutional working conditions (organizational characteristics) which can lead to overwork.