A quick e-mail in the evening, a phone call at the weekend or during breakfast to go through all your agenda and to dos. It seems harmless, but the impact is greater than we often think. This is apparent from research by Zilveren Kruis. Nearly half of employees experience the impact of overtime in their private lives.
A large part of the employees leads an unhealthy life due to overwork. For example, they exercise less, eat less healthily and sleep less. In addition, overtime has a negative impact on employees' social lives. The relationship with their partner and social contacts deteriorate. 39 percent of employees even sometimes feel guilty towards their partner and direct environment if there is less time for them because of work. The feeling of guilt towards children is shared even more widely (44%). Four out of ten employees are much more likely to become angry with the children because of (over)work and more than a quarter of them even feel that they are falling short as a parent.
But why do we do it en masse? It is striking that according to one in three employees (employees 30%, managers 24%), overtime is part of the corporate culture. The Dutch employee works an average of 3 hours overtime. About 80 percent of them are not dissatisfied with this. It is also 'normal' for managers to work overtime for the same reasons. They therefore do this more than twice as much as their employees, with an average of 6.5 hours a week.
More than half of managers think they already set a good example when it comes to work-life balance. This is less recognized by employees, only 34 percent of them also experience this. In addition, three quarters of managers indicate that they help their employees to maintain a good work-life balance. However, employees experience this help to a much lesser extent (49%). It is even a perception difference of 27 percentage points. Almost half of the managers indicate that they regularly ask whether their employees can still combine work with their family/private life. This check question is also experienced by employees to a much lesser extent, only by 22 percent. It is striking that almost half of the employees indicate that they are never even asked about this. In general, the leadership qualities of managers are therefore rated more negatively by employees than by the leaders themselves (employees 57%, managers 82%).
Managers are not always aware of the impact they have on the private lives of their employees and expect them to also pay attention to the matter outside working hours. The highest priority is on a better result. For example, four in ten leaders (39%) sometimes send a work-related message or email to an employee outside working hours. 30 percent of them also expect employees to respond outside working hours. Almost half of the managers (48%) also expect that the 'lost' working time will be made up later if employees have to go home earlier because of a sick child, for example. At the same time, managers (50%) say they give their employees the freedom by only judging them on performance.
