British chief executives lead the most miserable, punishing, unbalanced and unhealthy lives of all senior managers in Europe, according to a survey published today.

The poll of 250 managers across a variety of European industries showed the British are most likely to work too hard, neglect their families and eat badly. It is unclear whether they are even enjoying their jobs.

They are the worst in Europe at allowing their days to be wrecked by unwanted phone calls, junk mail and unsolicited callers.

They are second only to the French in thinking that board meetings are no more than a waste of time.

Spanish CEOs are far better at managing their time and enjoying a good quality of life. They see a lot of their families, rarely work at weekends and always find time for a proper lunch.

The survey, commissioned by Lexmark, the printer manufacturer, showed that, during the working week, Britain's CEOs slog it out at their desks for 9.5 hours a day, slightly less than the European average of 9.8 hours.

In Spain they work 9.3 hours, Scandinavia 9.5 hours, France 9.9 hours and Germany 10.7 hours a day.

It is at the weekends that British managers do the real damage, wrecking more family weekends than any other European CEOs.

A third work every weekend, while almost half admit to abandoning family weekends once a fortnight.

The survey concluded: "CEOs in the UK are probably miserable when they do arrive home.

"Not only have they had a long day full of unwanted interruptions, the average lunch consists of a sandwich at the desk and their ulcers are probably playing up."

No answer is given to one question thrown up by the statistics. British CEOs work slightly less than the average during the week, yet are the worst at getting home to see their families. Where have they got to?

Lexmark said: "We didn't look at this. Perhaps they are stuck on a train or in the pub we don't really know."