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We talk about it a lot, but does a ‘work-life balance’ really exist? What does it mean for people – and is it even a remote possibility in our age of hyper-connectivity?
Over the last decade, technology has become an even bigger part of our working lives, with companies regularly giving employees mobile phones, laptops, and occasionally tablets. Many employees in Belgium also use these connected devices for personal reasons outside of office hours, further blurring the lines between work and free time.
This blurring of the lines between what constitutes ‘work’ and what makes up ‘free time’ has an impact on happiness. How does this topic make today's working population feel about their professional life – and their private one?
PageGroup decided to investigate this phenomenon by conducting a survey in June 2018 of 250 professionals in Belgium. The results show significant levels of ‘blurring’between what constitutes their work life and their ‘free time,’ with 76% of Belgium´s professionals connecting to their work device outside of business hours.
It appears the old saying ‘always on call’ has never been so true. Over 79% of respondents are equipped with at least one device (mobile, laptop, tablet) from their company. When asked about what they use the laptop for, overall 50% said they only use it for professional purposes. However, the more senior a profile, the more the lines of separation blur, with 57% of managers saying they use work devices for more than just business needs. More than 78% of employees and 84% of managers use their phone for both professional and personal purposes.
63% of people agree that their work devices have changed their lives, with 29% saying it was a positive change. The data shows that professional life really is encroaching on the personal. Over 50% of people answer their emails and more than 40% take business calls outside of office hours every day. Is this really the ‘new normal’ for busy office workers and executives? Why?
Two main ideas point to why employees connect outside of hours – responsibility (63%) and obligation (34%). Interestingly, the split between these two ideas differs when it comes to gender, with 52% of women feeling obliged to stay connected compared to 27% of men.
Interestingly, 34% of respondents said they sometimes work during their vacation period, and 15% claimed that this was happening often. Even if this is a simple check of an inbox, or answering a phone call (or two), does this mean that disconnecting from work is a growing challenge in the 21st century?
European and Belgian labour laws are there to protect employees from overworking, stress and burnout, but are they fit for purpose? One route to help both the employer and the employee find that balance is remote working.
Remote working lets employees work outside the office, normally on a voluntary basis, by using the connected devices that the company provides them.
A benefit to remote work for the employee (manager or non-manager) is the increase in control they have over their schedule – meaning that they can balance their workload with their other responsibilities.
Although this practice is widely known, from the study we see that 78% managers currently enjoy this perk more than employees who don´t hold a management position (48%).
Sample: the survey was conducted among a sample of 250 people in Belgium, including unemployed people, employees, and managers.
Methodology: the representativeness of the sample assured by an adjustment of the data (gender, occupation of the interviewee, proportion of people in a job).
Collection method: the interviews consisted of self-administered questionnaires completed online from over June 2018.
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