According to a new study, the majority of business decision-makers and top executives regularly spend time during out-of-office hours catching up on administrative tasks.

According to research conducted by vehicle management group LeasePlan UK, some 80% of decision-makers and 90% of top “C-suite” executives claim they have had to spend time outside regular working hours catching up on their admin. This can have a knock-on impact on personal lives, with more than a third saying they have let their own families down as a result.

Around a third (32%) come in early, a similar amount work through lunch and 22% stay late to make sure their admin duties are finished.

When asked what they would rather be doing with this time, 21% said they would rather be home to read a bedtime story or participate in bath time for their children, and 25% said they would simply like to be home in time to eat dinner with their families.

Matt Dyer, Managing Director at LeasePlan UK, said: “It is disappointing to see unnecessary administrative tasks taking over business decision-makers’ lives to the extent that it directly impacts their home life.”

An excess of administration to deal with could also have a negative impact on other areas of the business. More than a quarter (26%) of decision-makers said they could spend the time currently devoted to admin more effectively by sourcing and engaging with new suppliers.

Some of the common tasks hogging decision-makers’ time were general admin tasks (which had to be dealt with by 59% of respondents), email communication and management (50%) and company vehicle-related issues, such as dealing with expenses claims and insurance (32%). Outsourcing could be one way of reducing the admin pressure, and the appropriate use of technology in accountancy and record-keeping could help reduce the amount of time needed for many areas of administration.

As it stands, 88% of decision-makers said they feel “overwhelmed” by this admin overload, and fully 95% of C-suite execs said that dealing with administration added unnecessary stress to their roles.