BUSINESS leaders in the UK face the most punishing work regime in Europe according to a report.

The report, "Time, your life, your business" and commissioned by Lexmark, the business printer manufacturer, reveals how UK CEOs are expected to sacrifice their home life, lunchtimes and weekends to meet the deadlines they face in the modern business world.

The report, which investigated the business pressures faced by CEOs across Europe and the time management skills required, found that almost half the UK CEOs questioned never get home in time to see their children during the week.

This compares unfavourably with France where only a quarter suffered the same problem and Spain where the figure stands at a healthy 12 per cent.

Despite the average UK CEO's working day standing at 9.5 hours, there is still not enough time during the week to cope with the work overload.

A third of respondents say they work every weekend while nearly half (46 per cent) admit they forfeit weekends with their family at least once a month and more often than not fortnightly.

This compares to only 18 per cent of Spanish and 19 per cent of Scandinavian CEOs who take work home every weekend.

Not only are UK CEOs having problems making time for their families, work pressures mean they are also ignoring the basic principles of survival. Many suffer from poor eating patterns -- almost five out of 10 admit to only having time to eat a quick sandwich at their desks for lunch.

Worse still, 12 per cent of UK and German CEOs admit to never having time to eat lunch compared to 82 per cent of their Spanish counterparts who make time for a proper lunch every day (a tiny 4 per cent of Spanish CEOs would consider eating a sandwich at their desk).

Not only is the UK CEO's health and family life suffering, so is the quality of their work.

Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) feel that after one hour working on a presentation (the amount of time they consider should be sufficient), their work is still not satisfactory.

However it seems that this is a common problem across Europe -- the Germans are the most satisfied with their work (spending on average 1.3 hours on presentation) but 64 per cent of them still think they could do better.

CEOs across Europe tend to spend one hour writing and responding to e-mails every day.

However, despite the immediacy of e-mail as a communication tool, almost a quarter (24 per cent) of UK CEOs and as many as 54 per cent in Spain still print their e-mails off to read on paper rather than on screen. Despite the mass acceptance of new technology among CEOs it would appear there is either still some residual mistrust of the electronic format or CEOs are using the printer as an effective time management tool.