Working Longer, Working Smarter?

The TUC recently announced that 5 million employees are working unpaid over time in the UK; this is an increase on the 2006 figures of 103,000. The average overtime worked each week is 7 hours 6 minutes, rising to 7 hours and 54 minutes in London. According to Brendan Barber (TUC General Secretary) “Britain’s long hours culture is enjoying a renaissance”. (1)

So is this good news for business? Employees are working longer for no extra cash – at first glance it may seem quite a good deal. However, a look at some of the costs of the long hours culture suggests otherwise.

As mentioned in a previous article the number of days lost through sickness absence as a direct result of stress stood at 13.8 million in 2006/7 – this equates to approximately 30.2 days lost per stress related absence. (2)

Added to days lost through illness are a range of other findings that demonstrate that overworked, stressed out staff do not perform effectively, lose motivation and commitment, have a negative perception of their organisation and indeed leave! Previous research findings include:

• 61% of employees reported a negative consequence in their personal life as a direct result of working longer hours (Mental Health Trust, 2003) (3)
  
  
• Correlations have been identified between working long hours and the amount of time spent worrying about work related issues in personal time. (Mental Health Trust, 2003) (3)
  
  
• 80% of workers feel that they cannot cope with the demands placed on them at times (24-7 Survey, 2007) (4)
  
  
• Workers who are stressed are nine times more likely to make a mistake than those that are not. (24-7 Survey, 2007) (4)
  
  
• Working long hours is not helping productivity – the UK still has lower productivity levels than Germany, France and the United States (5)
  

So in all it would seem that if we are to be effective, productive and well we may need to find different ways of working – both as organisations and individuals. The future will require us to work smarter rather than harder!

References:
1. Figures from TUC research. Available at: www.tuc.org.uk/work_life/tuc-11180-f0.cfm>
2. Health and Safety Executive. Available at: www.hse.gov.uk/stress/why.htm.
3. Whose life is it anyway? Report on the findings of the Mental Health Foundation. Available at: .Whose life is it anyway?>
4. Working Flat out and Feeling Fed Up - Summary results for the 24-7 Survey 2007.
Available at: ”http://www.worklifebalancecentre.org/main-epr-mar07.pdf”
5. Policy Analysis – UK productivity during the Blair Era. – Available at: ”http://cep.lse.ac.uk/briefings/pa_uk_productivity.pdf”