All In A Day’s Work

New research has indicated that the UK’s employees’ work-life balance is at a crisis point. With Sweden instigating a 6-hour working day, SBT looks at the feasability and benefits of a shorter working day, helping unpaid and exhausting overtime to be a thing of the past

Achieving a healthy work-life balance is difficult in this ‘always on’ society. Employees are working more and more hours each week, with a detrimental effect on mental health, physical health and overall wellbeing. The British overtime culture has recently been put under the spotlight, with more and more reports surfacing that elude to UK workers’ bad habits. Recent studies show that UK employees are struggling to leave their 9-5 day on time, with the majority of UK-based workers now working an extra day (8.73 hours) every week on top of their regular, contracted hours. One study run off the back of National Work Life Week in October found that more than one in ten UK employees work over 50 hours per week, with workload the main reasons for putting in extra hours. Equally, and most shockingly, a survey conducted by One Pulse, a market research mobile app that connects people that have opinions with businesses that need opinions, found that almost half (46%) of all overtime workers don’t get paid for the extra time they work – amounting to approximately 66 million hours of unpaid work every week!

To mark Work-Life Balance Week this year, OnePulse spoke to over 2,000 UK-based employees to find out if they are able to strike the balance between their working life and home life. On first look at the results, Brits seem to have struck a good balance, with 88% of UK-based employees saying they ‘work to live’ rather than ‘live to work’, and the majority (63%) saying that they enjoy their job.

However, OnePulse found that, each week, 69% of UK employees worked overtime, averaging 8.73 hours’ overtime a week, with a shocking 49% receiving no compensation for this overtime. And it doesn’t stop at working overtime either: over a third (38%) of UK-based employees say they are not able to take 100 per cent of their annual leave entitlement, due to an excessive workload, and 49% regularly work through their lunch breaks.

As a result, employees are stressed; understandably so. Stress is the top health and safety concern in UK workplaces according to a TUC study published on World Mental Health Day, and more worryingly one of the main causes of mental health problems, in particular anxiety and depression. The TUC’s biennial survey of more than 1,000 health and safety reps around the UK showed stress to be at the top of the list, with 7 in 10 reps (70%) citing it as a problem – up 3% since the last survey in 2014 when 67% did so, and a higher proportion than in any previous TUC study.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The message from the shop floor is clear, stress is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. Pressures of long working hours and low job security are being felt in workplaces across the UK. It’s in no-one’s interests to have overstretched workforces. People who experience high anxiety are less productive and are more likely to take time off. Stress is preventable if staff have reasonable workloads, supportive managers and a workplace free from violence, bullying and harassment.”

A variety of events, campaigns, studies and talks are run throughout the year and across the country, attempting to educate people on stress and working to live instead of living to work; trying to combat, for example, the third of parents who have reported being burned out often or all the time, and the record number of adults suffering from stress and anxiety. However, we all know the facts and figures, and most of us know what’s good for us, but that doesn’t seem to be enough in our fast and furious society. So what’s the answer?

For around a year, nurses at the Svartedalens retirement home in Sweden have worked six-hour days on an eight-hour salary as a part of an experiment funded by the Swedish government to see if a shorter working day can increase productivity. And does it? Yes. As a result of this research, multiple companies in Sweden have introduced a shorter working week with proven health benefits, increased productivity in the workplace and profit. This news has spread across the UK, with mixed responses – some business owners and managers seeing problems from the outset, and others welcoming the idea of going home earlier. What Sweden are instigating is the idea of a 6-hour working day, allowing the workforce to be more productive within their working hours, healthier and happier.

The numbers are there – we would all, of course benefit from a shorter working day, as would in fact healthcare services; with less risk of anxiety, depression, even suicide, alongside physical ailments that come from high blood pressure, such as heart disease. But how feasible is this?

Pitman Training Group MD, Claire Lister said: “The key to efficiency and a reduction of hours in the working day is to ensure that employees are trained in a variety of skills to ensure they’re working quickly and effectively. The Swedish model is an ideology which we are not yet equipped to deal with in the UK but we can make smaller changes that can still have a big impact”.

Richard Freeman, CEO at always possible, a full-service projects, consultancy & communications company, explained the impact of the British workers’ mindset in applying more sensible working hours: “We know that UK workers are amongst the worst in the world for sticking to sensible working hours – and we’re also nowhere near as productive per hour as other major economies. It all feels a bit lose-lose.

“British business culture is not often very good at defining what unwritten permissions people have (beyond the staff handbook and contract). If all staff feel that they have permission to ask for flexibility, to speak up, to put in extra effort when needed – and also to know then times/stress-points when they don’t have permission to do this – there will be a more in-tune and autonomous workforce.

He added that ‘successful people know when to stop’, and that our approach must be more flexible according to the worker in question: “In terms of a 6-hour day. Why do we need a one-size fits all policy? Some people can get their work done in 4 hours. Doctors, teachers, checkout staff and taxi drivers probably can’t. We need to stop thinking about our ‘job’, but start thinking about our work as a part of our life that needs to be managed, invested in, rested, loved, commited to – like family, health and leisure. The job is the function, the work is the purpose.”

Claire concluded: “We need to take action, and educate both employees and the companies they work for in the benefits of an engaged, motivated and healthy workforce. We have entered the .com era, taking companies such as Netflix and Facebook as an example, where year upon year their staff ethos, and work-life balance are being highlighted as a model for the world. This is no longer something that is unachievable, but having the right approach to making this work in your business is key. It is always going to be a two way street, but one which can be balanced for both the employer and employee and I’m passionate helping change outlooks on more balanced working life.”