Killer Statistics
Many people have done research in to WorkStyle™ related areas. We have here a summary of some of this research. With statistics from all over the word, it paints an interesting picture of our life today. This research is grouped into the following categories:
Work
A recent survey showed 97% of holidaying business people took their mobile phones and 68% either a laptop or a Blackberry on vacation. Just over a third would not consider staying in a resort without wireless access. Gary Chaplin, regional director of recruitment consultancy Stark Brooks, said surveys showed that holidays were increasingly being respected. In 2007, 17% of professionals polled by the consultants did not take their full entitlement, down from 24% five years ago. (Stark Brooks Associates survey 2008)
As Mark Bergin wrote in Living in a Connect World being a choice with technology allows many people to manage their WorkStyle
Japan's working population of 66 million will shrink by more than a third by 2050, to 42 million in the coming decades. For the first time the report marked a change in the government's attitude by including targets to try to help emphasise a healthy work-life balance. Akira Imai, a senior official responsible for tackling declining birthrates, said. "The government had previously left the task of promoting a better work-life balance to individual companies, but we determined that society as a whole needs to tackle the issue." One out of every 10 Japanese employees works more than 60 hours a week. The government says it wants to halve that, although it does not say much about how this will be achieved. To help address the low birth rate, it wants more male workers to take childcare leave. And it says Japan should urgently build a framework of family allowances and other benefits to make it easier for workers to marry, to have children and to raise them properly.
(Annual Tokyo government assessment of future trends in the labour force April 2008)
47 percent of Americans are struggling and 4 percent are suffering
49 % of respondents are reported to be thriving based on a personal assessment of how they feel about their lives at the time of the survey, and where they think they'll be in five years.
Pollsters asked people to imagine where they would put themselves on a ladder with 10 steps. Those said they were on step seven or above are listed as thriving. Those at four or below are suffering. In between are the strugglers.
Those who are thriving tend to have higher incomes, more education and less illness. Those who are suffering have trouble meeting their basic needs, including food, shelter and medical care, said James Harter, Gallup's chief scientist for workplace management and well-being.
Just as the U.S is not No. 1 when it comes to health measures, it also is not No. 1 in well-being, he said. For example, 83 percent of the residents of Denmark are classified as thriving versus 1 percent who are suffering.
The survey shows that manufacturing or transportation workers are most likely to report a negative work environment — 29 percent. Those who report a negative work environment tend to miss more days of work. A worker with up to three chronic conditions and a negative work environment will miss an average of 6.6 more days of work a year than a similar worker who likes his or her work environment, the survey found.
The survey said a negative work environment includes job dissatisfaction, an authoritative boss, lack of trust and lack of focus on individual strengths.
Among all workers, two-thirds reported one or more chronic diseases or recurring conditions. More than a quarter reported back or neck problems; 23 percent cited high cholesterol and 22 percent had high blood pressure. More than one in 10 said they suffered from depression.
Nearly two-thirds of workers reported body mass indexes indicating they could be obese or overweight.
(Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, based on interviews of more than 100,000 people so far, April 2008)
Organizations annually lose around 14% of their working days due to ill health. Reducing just one health risk increases an employee’s on-the-job productivity by 9% and cuts absenteeism by 2%. (Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (Icrier), surveyed 81 companies across sectors, September 2007)
As late as the recession of the 1990s, gen Xers (and the baby boomers before them) were grateful to have a job. Now in our economic climate, staff of all ages are more empowered to see work-life balance. In fact 80% of workers seek work-life balance. Job satisfaction, flexibility and security were the top three conditions for people staying in work. (if pay was within the average range) People seem willing to move if they don't like the results. (McCrindle Research, February 2008)
The average tenure for an employee at a workplace is a mere four years - down from 12 years in the 1960s (McCrindle Research, February 2008)
The partners at Thackray Burgess, a 34-lawyer business law firm in Calgary, think they have found the ultimate recruiting tool. The firm scrapped the concept of billable-hour quotas for associates, electing, instead, to treat non-partners, as consultants, letting them pick the number of hours they want to work and giving them the flexibility to set their schedule according to their needs. That includes working from home if they like. It's a model that resembles other fields where work is project based, such as IT consulting or even construction. The lawyers are paid for the time they work. If they don't work, they're not paid. (Financial Post, Canada February 2008)
Since 2001, evening, public holiday and weekend work has increased, and 23% of employees always work both weekdays and weekends; 48.8% of men work longer hours than the standard 35-40 hours a week; 21.1% of women work longer than the standard working week (the self-employed are excluded from these figures).
Managers, administrators and associate professionals are the occupations that worked the longest average weekly hours, and received the highest average weekly earnings So they have the money to buy leisure, but they work longer, and they represent only a third of the total full-time working population.
The average working hours for full-timers has decreased from 46 in 2001 to 45 in 2007, but the hours are still well above the 38 hours per week, the "standard working week" of 20 years ago. (ABS 2006).
Just over 50% of 1,300 Australian SME owners said achieving work/life balance was their definition of success, compared to 33% who aspire to higher profits. And what is stopping SME owners spending more time with the family? Mainly a lack of good staff to keep things ticking over while they are away, and having to spend time doing the books; 18% of SME owners ranked each of them as key barriers to success. Some SME owners are also getting worn down by the daily grind of running a business – 17% said losing personal drive was a major obstacle to achieving their goals. (Reckon, accounting software, survey February 2008)
According to the ABS Yearbook 2008 released 7 February 2008, the average full-time employee worked 39.4 hours per week in 2006-07, down from the record high of 41.4 hours recorded 1999-2000.
Nearly a third (29 percent) of US workers now consider work-life balance and flexibility to be the most important factor in considering job offers. Compensation still matters, of course, but it finished second (23 percent) behind lifestyle when workers were asked to name the primary reason they accepted their current positions. "Money will always be important to people, but in this age of Internet powered remote access where there are so many virtual options, employees place a much higher premium on flexible work arrangements," said Robert Morgan, co-president of Recruitment and Talent Management, Hudson. "As the pool of qualified candidates shrinks, it seems that employers can compete more effectively for talent if they can offer work-life balance to go along with the competitive pay." (Hudson survey based on a national poll of 1,634 U.S. workers who have been with their company for less than five years January 2008).
89% of employees look for work/life balance programs (such as telecommuting, flexitime, remote working) when evaluating a new job
80% said that, in the offer stage, a potential employer's work-life balance initiatives were important or very important to consider.
work/life balance is especially important to younger workers from Gen X or Gen Y
60% of HR professionals believed there would be more employer-provided work-life balance initiatives within five years, yet only half believed general work-life balance would improve in the future.
29% think of their company's work/life balance programs as good or excellent.
58% complain their employer works them too much, with a third blaming their boss' expectations and a quarter saying they overworked to fit in with corporate culture. Nine out of 10 said they had worked directly with someone they would classify as a "workaholic".
"Developing and promoting a work/life balance program can be a key differentiator in today's challenging recruitment market where there are ample opportunities for job seekers," said Jesse Harriott, vice president of research for Monster. "Thus, employers should look to improve their employment brand by creating and promoting a flexible, balanced work atmosphere as an effective means of improving recruitment and retention," Harriott added.
More than 75% of workers believed work-life balance initiatives resulted in more loyal and efficient employees.
(Monster Work/Life Balance Survey November 2007)
More than a quarter (27%) of workers in Hong Kong would consider moving overseas to achieve a better work-life balance. 65% percent of workers said they regularly put in overtime and 70%have less than two hours a day for personal activities. Being at the office appears to be a strain. Some 89%f employees in the survey said they are unhappy at work, up from 76%n last year's survey, and cited relationships with colleagues and superiors as the main reason. More than 60% of employees surveyed also said they suffer from prolonged fatigue and 33% said their productivity was affected as a result. Employees said more annual leave would help improve work-life balance but the survey found that entitlement to paid annual leave has fallen to 13.9 days this year from 15.3 days last year. More than 35 percent of employees said they do not always take their full entitlement anyway.
(Community Business Suvey, Singapore July 2007)
Australian bosses were starting to realise workplace flexibility is the key to attracting and retaining valuable staff, promting them to offer flexible hours, the option to work from home, extended holiday and maternity leave and part-time work for older employees. Of the 284 Australian companies who took part in the 2007 Managing Work Life Balance International study, 75% said they had spent the last 12 months focusing on increasing flexibility in the workplace, including flexible working hours and the option to work from home. Overall, 28% of the companies polled said they had seen a reduction in absenteeism because of their policies and 50% said productivity had improved.
(Managing Work Life Balance International Study, 2007)
Global Average of executive working week 53 hours. Where does your country sit?
Argentina, India 57
Armenia, Australia, Botswana 56
Turkey, United States 55
China, Hong Kong, Singapore 54
Taiwan 53
Canada, Germany, Greece 52
Brazil, France, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia and New Zealand 50
Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Thailand 48
Italy 47
(Grant Thornton's International Business Report (IBR), a survey of 7200 business owners in 32 countries May 2007)
There is a strong relationship between work-life balance and positive ethical behaviours at work. 91 percent of all employed adults agreed that workers are more likely to behave ethically at work when they have a good work-life balance. A combined 44 percent of workers cited high levels of stress (28 %), long hours (25 %) and inflexible schedules (13 %) as the causes of conflict between their work responsibilities and personal priorities, and hence as contributors to work-life imbalance. 60% of employed adults surveyed said they thought that job dissatisfaction is a leading reason why people make unethical decisions at work, and more than half of workers (55 %) ranked a flexible work schedule among the top three factors leading to job satisfaction, second only to compensation (63 %). The survey also reveals the important impact that management and supervisors have in promoting ethical workplace behaviours. Employed adults ranked the behaviour of management (42 %) and direct supervisors (36 %) as the top two factors contributing to the promotion of an ethical workplace. The behaviours of management and direct supervisors, coupled with positive reinforcement for ethical behaviour, are the top factors for promoting ethical behaviour in the workforce. Interestingly, the survey showed that reinforcement of criminal penalties and ethics training may do little to deter unethical behaviour at work.
(Deloitte Survey published in WebCPA April 2007)
59% of recent college graduates picked balancing their personal and professional lives as their top career goal (Business Week March 2007)
75% of people used their wireless devices (mobile/cell phone, laptop/notebook, smartphone/pda), equally for work and personal reasons. Nearly 30% were so attached to them they only switched them off while sleeping. 67% of respondents admitting to having used a wireless device to connect to work while on vacation. Instead of using wireless devices to arrange meetings and business appointments use them to schedule some free time.(Yahoo! HotJobs online survey of 900 professionals 2007)
Asia-Pacific executives are worse off than their counterparts elsewhere in the world. Globally 53% of executives agree that work-life balance has worsened over the last five years; yet as high as 75% of executives from Asia-Pacific felt the same.(Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) survey published February 2007)
85% of men say that achieving work-life balance is more important than ever before. 48% of male employees now ask for less travel during job negotiations, compared with 77% of females. (Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) survey published February 2007)
Very long work hours of work (50 hours or more per week) have become more common for full-time workers in the 20 years since 1985, particularly for men. In 2005, 30% of men working full-time worked 50 hours or more per week. This is up from 22% in 1985. Women working full-time also have an increased workload with 16% of full-time female workers working 50 hours or more per week, up from 9% in 1985. (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006 Australian Social Trends data)
3 in every 10 Australian workers were working extended hours (1 in 10 more than 60 hours a week). It acknowledged that there are no measurable benefits in working increasingly longer hours: when we are fatigued, we are far less efficient. (Extended Working Hours in Australia: Counting the Cost by the Queensland Department of Industrial Relations)
50% of respondents say they are too tired to say anything to their spouse or partner at the end of a 12 hour day. 55% say work interferes with their sex life. Yet 75% of respondents love their jobs. 66% say that the pressure and the pace are self-inflicted. (Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek by Dr Sylvia Ann Hewlett, President of the Centre for Work-Life (NY) Dec 2006)
A recent survey found that 40% of working New Zealanders have difficulty achieving work-life balance, almost half the population! And 22% of working New Zealanders work 50 hours a week or more, up from 17% fifteen years ago. (New Zealand Ministry of Social Development Nov 2006)
Employees are setting career paths based on their own values and definitions of success. Rather than subscribing to the 'onward and upward' mentality, they are more interested in unhooking from the pressure to follow an upward path that someone else has set. This phenomenon is now called 'reduced aspirations' among various sectors of the workforce. Among college-educated women of Gen Y, Gen X and Boomer ages, 57% wanted to move into jobs with more responsibility in 1992 versus only 36% in 2002. Among college-educated men of Gen Y, Gen X and Boomer ages, 68% wanted to move into jobs with more responsibility in 1992, versus only 52% in 2002. The top 100 men and top 100 women leaders in the top 10 multinationals have reduced their career aspirations 34% (women) and 21% (men). (Families at Work Institute's Generation & Gender Report 2004) (published by knowledge@wharton October 2006)
Conflict between work and family responsibilities cost Australia about $8 billion each year in losses such as staff turnover, absenteeism and health costs. (Senior lecturer in Griffith's School of Psychology Dr Paula Brough who is also the Chief Investigator for the upcoming study into the development of a practical measure of work-life balance for use by Australian industry and government, 2006)
Sixty one per cent of Canadian small business owners believe they could better balance their work and home life, while thirty nine per cent feel that they are doing this very well. (Ipsos Reid/RBC Royal Bank survey, 2006)
Australians have stockpiled 70 million annual leave days (AC Nielson, 2005)
More than 60 percent of full-time Australian workers do not use their full annual leave entitlement in a year, and more than one third do not take any leave at all. (Tourism Australia's No Leave, No Life study 2006)
48 percent of respondents say lack of resourcing and back-up while on leave is the most significant barrier to takig leave. (Tourism Australia's No Leave, No Life study 2006)
46 percent indicate that the increased workload before and after leave makes the holiday less than worthwhile, particularly working through emails upon return.(Tourism Australia's No Leave, No Life study 2006)
40 percent cited workplace issues as the most significant barriers, while less than 25 percent said they accrued leave due to personal issues. (Tourism Australia's No Leave, No Life study 2006)
33 percent said fitting travel and holiday plnas around a partner or travel companion is a barrier.(Tourism Australia's No Leave, No Life study 2006)
22 percent cited children's commitments as a barrier. (Tourism Australia's No Leave, No Life study 2006)
18 percent said that even finding the time to organise a holiday becomes an obstacle! (Tourism Australia's No Leave, No Life study 2006)
"Studies have proven people are much better emotionally and physically after taking a holiday" says workplace health and wellbeing expert Professor Ron Penny, medical director of Good Health Solutions. "For starters, the heart-attack risk drops in males when they take annual leave at regular intervals." Importantly for employers, health, well-rested people are more productive; they take fewer sick days and the strange phenomenon of 'presenteeism' and classic Mondayitis, become less prevalent. (The Weekend Australian Magazine 8-9 July 2006)
35 percent of business women report various aspects of their organizations' cultures that effectively penalize people who take advantage of work-life policies (Harvard Business Review, Vol. 83, No. 3, March 2005)
52 percent of women with MBAs in the business sector cite they do not find their careers "either satisfying or enjoyable" as an important reason for why they left work (Harvard Business Review, Vol. 83, No. 3, March 2005)
64% of women find flexible working conditions as an extremely or very important motivator where only 42 percent say "earning a lot of money" is an important motivator. (Harvard Business Review, Vol. 83, No. 3, March 2005)
62% of respondents in a study commissioned by Hewlett Packard admitted they were addicted to checking their emails and text messages, and 21% said they would interupt a meeting to do so (Weekend Australian, 23 April 2005)
Regular use of text messages and emails can lower a person's IQ more than twice as much as smoking marijuana (Texting and email temporarily knocks 10 points of the users IQ score) (Weekend Australian, 23 April 2005)
Average weekly hours worked by male managers and administrators 50.7, by females 44 (Australian Bureau of Statistics Cat No 6105.0 November 2003)
61% of respondents from a group of executives in 10 multinational companies are work centric and feel less successful than those who put the same priority on their work life as other parts of their life(referred to as Dual Centric). Dual Centric respondents were 50% less likely to feel moderate or high levels of stress. (Australian Financial Review, 11 Nov 2003)
The standard email user has about 1000 mail files in their in-tray (BOSS, Jan 2004)
Australian full time employees work the second highest average number of weekly hours in the developed world (BOSS, Jan 2004)
25% of employed people work more than 49 hours a week in 2000 compared to 15% in 1980 (BRW 15/6/2001)
88% of the population are not truly satisfied with the work they're doing (Mike Creagan, Research paper, Australian Career Counsellors Conference, 1998)
By 2016, 80% of the labour force growth will come from workers aged 45 and older (Australian Bureau of Statistics quoted in BOSS, Jan 2004)
85% feel their workplace is stressful (Drake Business Review, 1999)
84% of women feel they do too much work (SMH, 1999)
42% of people feel life is a treadmill and they can't get off (Stephen Covey, 1997 study)
66% of the population say they can't wait to quit their jobs (Morgan & Banks, 1999)
83% of Australians have not taken all of their holiday leave for the last year (Partnership Australia Domestic , The Age 10/4/2000)
33% of Australians have not taken any holiday leave in the past 12 months (Partnership Australia Domestic , The Age 10/4/2000)
42% of Australians have not taken any holiday leave in the past 2 years (Partnership Australia Domestic , The Age 10/4/2000)
70% of the population do not have goals (Harvard Business School)
25% do have goals but don't write them down (Harvard Business School)
Only 5% of the population have written goals (Harvard Business School)
83% of people say they would like to be more organised (Stephen Covey, 1997 study)
A study by Executive and Professional Register (EPR) found:
Of Australian high income earners (annual household income > $50,000)
- 32% are dissatisfied with their level of stress at work
- 30% are dissatisfied with their salary levels
- 26% are unhappy with hours of work
- 24% are unhappy with their future prospects in their current job
- 66% are dissatisfied with some aspect of their career
- 36% of these people do not plan to do anything about it
Life
3 forces that shape Generation Y. 1 - Technology 2 - Change in institutions: education is very different now and organisations are more dynamic. 3 - Change in society’s values in that young people have been really cared for and protected by their parents. This has created a generation that iss confident and entrepreneurial, who see a career as a cause and want a socially responsible employer. Generation Y are success-driven, bored by routine, expected a good work-life balance from day one and are prepared to walk away from an employer that does not respond to their values and concerns. (However the whole argument falls down if you look at the Chinese market, where young people are even further away from the Generation Y definition.) Paul Redmond, head of the Careers & Employability Service at the University of Liverpool and a leading expert on generation theory and the graduate recruitment market, Times OnLine 6 July 2008)
71% of British employees would choose to stay late on Valentine’s Day to deal with an urgent enquiry, and only a quarter (25.3%) would leave it until the following day. These results demonstrate that most Brits put their job before their relationship and this is affecting our work life balance. More than 22 million people in the UK work for small or medium sized businesses, and with four million people working more than 48 hours per week we are known to work the longest hours than any other European country. The survey also revealed that our quality time spent with our partners is dominated by our jobs, with results showing that more than a third (38%) said they talk about work "very often" or "often" when having a romantic meal with their partners. (Lloyds TSB Business Insurance online survey February 2008)
Australian Seachange Taskforce showed 1.8 per cent of the population – or 300,000 people – moved out of capital cities and headed for the coast in 2007. (McCrindle Research January 2008)
According to global investment company Goldman Sachs, workers - especially those born after 1977 - want not just financial rewards but also work-life integration. In fact, Goldman Sachs now lists work-life balance and flexible work arrangements as one of its benchmarks when assessing if a company is worth investing in. "The millennials - the twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings - are talented. They're digitalised, they are netizens. They want the world, they want personal time, they want family time. Men are quitting because they want family. Women are quitting because they're forming a family. But they're not satisfied just being home makers. They want to work." says the new Chairman of Employer Alliance, Claire Chiang in Singapore.
(Channel NewsAsia, July 2007)
In an online survey of more than 700 working mothers in mid- to senior-level management positions, nearly 90 percent of the respondents reported that, if there were no obstacles, they would work either full-time, part-time or under a flex-time arrangement (reported by 31 percent, 26 percent and 33 percent of respondents, respectively). Just 11 percent said they would not work at all. Responding to the work-life balance, almost 74% working mothers said it is either right always or it is right most of the time, and 69% of the working mothers have a confidence that 'women have it all'. For more than 50% of the participants telecommuting as a work option is at the top in their 'wish list', but only 37% we offered this option by their companies. Flexibility program has three most common variants. Almost 61% of the working mothers voted in favor of 'flex-time' while 51% voted for 'part-time' and 44% opted for a 'modified work week' as their favored program.
(Accenture " Working Mothers Want to Stay on the Job, Reporting Favorable Work/Life Balance" September 2007)
With 85 million baby boomers and 50 million Gen Xers, there is already a yawning generation gap among American workers - particularly in their ideas of work-life balance. For baby boomers, it's the juggling act between job and family. For Gen X, it means moving in and out of the workforce to accommodate kids and outside interests. Now along come the 76 million members of Generation Y. For these new 20-something workers, the line between work and home doesn't really exist. They just want to spend their time in meaningful and useful ways, no matter where they are.
(Penelope Trunk, Time 5 July 2007)
25% of people are "Down Shifting" in Australia. That is, leaving a corporate job and going to a more simplistic lifestyle which has less work hours and less money. The main reasons for this are: 46% family, 23% health, 16% fulfillment, 12% post materialist principles
(Compass Program, ABC, 22 Feb 2004)
7% of Australian women feel life isn't worth living and 12% have been diagnosed with depression (The Age, 21 June 2003)
75% of Australians want to spend more time with their families (Australian Institute Study, 1999)
After domestic duties and work, only 11% of our time is available for leisure (ABS, 1998)
Antidepressant use has jumped by 58% in the last 4 years (SMH, 1999)
Number of prescriptions written for antidepressants in Australia has increased 233% from 2.7 million in 1996 to 9 million in 2002 (The Age, Dec 2003)
Participation in sport drops dramatically from 40% of 18-25 year old age group to 25% of 25-34 year olds and 17.6% 35-44. The main reason for giving up is lack of time and health problems (ABS)
67% of Australian professionals spend at least 20 hours a week thinking about their job when they should be relaxing (Melbourne Express, 8/5/2001)
The percentage of people "very happy" with their sex lives varies between nations. Salon.com reports the following results of a survey in April 2001:
Venezuela 46%, Brazil 32%, Argentina 30%, USA 27%, India and Mexico 26%, France and Australia 25%, UK 23%, Germany, Italy and Malaysia 14%, China 9%, Russians 6%, and Hong Kong only 5%
42.5% of Australian males and 46.7% of Australian females say their job has a bad effect on their sex life (The Age 1 Feb 2003)
A survey done by a UK based medical website in mid 2000 found:
- 10% of Britons believe they would be better off dead
- 20% worry about becoming seriously mentally ill
- 25% saw no hope for the future
- 10% felt fate had dealt humanity a miserable life which they were powerless to alter
- 25% were unhappy in their jobs
- 33% felt exhausted, unappreciated or underpaid
- 25% were dissatisfied with their sex lives
- 10% of men were emotionally, verbally or physically abused by their wives or girlfriends (6% for women)
The US National Sleep Foundation's year 2000 survey of more than 1000 Americans compared an individual's current situation with what they were doing in 1996.
- 40% of people are working longer hours
- 38% worked more than 50 hrs/week
- 52% are having less sex
- 50 % suffer insomnia symptoms twice a week
- 40% are spending less time asleep
- 33% often wake up during the night
- 60% do not get the recommended 8 hrs sleep
- 31% sleep less than 7 hrs a night
- 22% are so tired it interferes with daily activities twice a week
To save time, individuals would spend less time in these areas:
- 25% leisure activities
- 19% family and friends
- 17% sleep 16% sex
