A survey from Yorkshire Bank, looking at attitudes to work within small and medium-sized businesses, has revealed that more than two-fifths (44 per cent) of workers in the region are struggling to find happiness in their jobs and admit that their enjoyment of work has decreased.

And it is not just workers in Yorkshire and Humberside who feel this way.

Across the UK only workers from the East Midlands, South West and Scotland feel that their enjoyment has increased.

The East Midlands has shown the biggest increase (40 per cent), closely followed by the South West (39 per cent) and Scotland (35 per cent).

More than one in five (22 per cent) of the region's workforce is taking more than 30 days holiday a year. However, it seems that those in Yorkshire and Humberside need these extra days off as they work some of the longest hours of all the other regions (with 78 per cent working over 41 hours a week).

But in true "work hard play hard" fashion their days off are precious.

The region's workforce is among the least likely to contact the office while away (66 per cent said they might contact the office, compared to the national average of 77 per cent).

Kath Myers, head of Yorkshire Bank's Financial Solutions Centres in Yorkshire and Humberside said: "It's easy to make assumptions about why people's enjoyment of their work appears to be declining, the current economic situation being perhaps the most obvious.

"But when you consider that workers in Yorkshire and Humberside appear to be among the unhappiest in the UK, and more than three-quarters work more than 41 hours a week, it's good to see that when they have the chance to get away from the office they make the most of their time off."