Employees Are Most Overworked In These 10 States

Usually, when people picture the states where the grind culture is the strongest, they might imagine people working in New York City or Los Angeles. If you’re one of them, you might find it surprising that the state with the employees who work the longest hours actually isn’t New York or California – but Louisiana.

According to a study done earlier this year by Wave Connect, a digital business‑card provider that tracks workplace trends, the study weighed how people balance their lives; how engaged employees feel at their jobs; how many juggle multiple positions; and how often employees search online for burnout recovery. Combined, these produced the study’s Employee Workaholism Score.

THE TOP TEN STATES

At the top of the list, Louisiana, Arizona, and Kentucky stand out as the ultimate workaholic trio.

Employees living and working in Louisiana had the lowest score for work-life Despite this score, employees in Louisiana have one of the highest engagement rates, tied for first with Kentucky.

Arizona trails close behind with 35.1 hours and one of the highest rates of people working multiple jobs. Kentucky rounds out the top three, with workers putting in long hours but also reporting unusually high engagement. Over a third of employees in this state, 36%, say they genuinely enjoy their jobs.

As for the rest, North Dakota doesn’t crack the top three, but has the highest percentage of workers holding multiple jobs at nearly 8%, and the second highest online searches for burnout treatment.

A little further down, Colorado has a relatively strong work‑life balance score, yet still ranks in the top 10 thanks to holding the highest burnout searches per month. Way up north, Alaska lands in fourth place despite better balance scores, largely because of elevated rates of people working two or more jobs.

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