How much time do you actually spend working over a lifetime?

Do you feel like you spend more time at work than at home with your family and friends? Well statistically, the hours you spend at the office over a lifetime, may actually confirm this.

The average Brit will spend 3,507 full days hard at work during their lifetime – including 204 days of overtime, it has emerged.

Researchers found employees will also think about quitting their job 16 times a year and will retrain for an entirely new role twice over the course of their working life.

Additionally, the average worker will put in 34 hours and 26 minutes of work a week, totalling 1,791 hours a year and 84,171 hours in the course of their career. They will also keep their nose to the grindstone for an additional nine hours of overtime a month, totalling 4,890 hours over the course of the average career. But working so hard will take its toll with the typical worker taking 94 days – the equivalent of over three months – off sick.

The survey also found the average worker travels 94,192 miles to and from their workplace, spending 14,053 hours commuting.

On top of this, they will claim £134,248.92 in company expenses. The typical employee will also smooch through six office romances and battle through 812 workplace arguments, as well as brewing 7,967 rounds of tea or coffee for their colleagues.

Rachel Kellett of AAT, who commissioned the study, said: “The impact our jobs have on our lives spreads far beyond the workplace. It takes in days of commuting and thousands of pounds of expense claims, not to mention the impressive number of tea rounds and cheeky office liaisons we might become entangled in. With careers having such a big impact on our lives, it’s important to make sure that we are in the right one.”

The study also found the average worker hasn’t changed jobs in the last six years, a figure which falls to four and a half years in the South West of England and rises to seven years in London. More drastic thoughts of starting again in a completely new career, not just a new job, crosses our minds a further ten times a year.

A third of working Brits, polled by OnePoll.com, have taken the plunge in the past and retrained to follow a new path meant for them.

And one in five are currently thinking about retraining, even though most believe it is officially too late to change your career path past the age of 47.

Kellett added: “It’s easy to look at these figures and get the impression that working life can become something of a grind, resulting in a carousel of commuting, overtime and cups of tea. It’s important to make sure you are happy with your career. If you’re not, considering retraining could help make you more content.

“Despite what some people might think, you can make a change at any point in your life – we have people studying finance qualifications while in their 70s.”