One in two City workers 'more stressed at home than in office'

Over half of City workers are more stressed at home than at work, scientists have shown.

A new study suggests more than half of workers suffer high levels of stress away from the office as they try to balance their home and work lives.

Researchers found taking work home can be deadly with links to cardiovascular disease.

The study used wrist monitors to measure heart rates and found there are “spikes” in stress when people interrupt their time at home with work, the Times reported.

Co-author of the study, David Plans, said the culture of always working is “killing people”.

He said: “Everybody knew that always working was bad, but now we can measure when it is happening and exactly what damage it is doing. It is much worse than we thought. It is killing people.

“Dealing with work while at home is pernicious to health and is directly linkable to cardiovascular disease. That is now measurable and before it was not.”

The study was backed by AXA PPP Healthcare and appears in the latest edition of Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

One phase of the study, which analysed 550 London staff from the French bank BNP Paribas, found stress levels were dangerously high until 8.30pm when children went to bed. Some stress levels remained high until 1am.