Are we getting the best work-life balance?

Brits are reported to spend at least 21% of their waking hours at work across their lifespan. With so much time spent at work, it’s important to strike the best possible work-life balance.

According to a recent survey conducted by Paymentsense, the majority of Brits think they have a good work-life balance. However, 59% think that their working lives impact simple tasks, such as booking a doctor’s appointment or seeing friends or family. Even though our careers are very important to us, Brits are concerned that their jobs are impacting day-to-day activities.

As we are in the middle of winter, colds, and flu are at a peak, but rather than Brit’s taking time off to fully recover, over half (52%) are coming into work whilst ill because they feel under pressure to complete their workload.

Is your work more important than your health?

According to 2,000 UK participants, when unwell, 52% of office workers would consider coming into work just to complete their workload.

Interestingly, more women (56%) have admitted they would come into work even though they still feel unwell. However, more men (73%) think they have a good work-life balance, compared to 67% of women.

18-24 year olds feel the most pressure to come into work while unwell because they need to complete tasks (57%) but workers aged between 45-54 will take time off happily to recover and then complete tasks when they are back (43%).

The job with the most demand to be at work even when feeling ill is the law enforcement and security sector, with 77% of people admitting they felt they had to be at work regardless of how well/unwell they were. The high pressure gets to people working in the media and marketing sector as well with 76% of people having to come in when ill.

However, people working in leisure, sport, and tourism seem to have the best work-life balance when it comes to days of due to illness because only 20% of people working in this sector feel pressure to come in when ill.

35% of people working in the UK have had to miss Doctors appointments because they were unable to go during work hours, the same for Dentist appointments (27%). Most shockingly though, a quarter of parents have had to miss children’s school meetings because of work commitments.

Getting a good work-life balance is important, there are simple changes that you can make to ensure that this happens. Staying at home while unwell is one of them so that you are able to fully recover.

Guy Moreve, Head of Marketing at Paymentsense says:

“It’s important that everyone within the workplace gets the best possible work-life balance. It’s crucial to the efficiency of a business. If the employees are demotivated, then this will eventually show in the quality of their work.

“We need to make sure this ethos is fed down from the top management to all levels of the business. As a business, you should be offering flexible working schemes. This gives employees the opportunity to take care of everyday life tasks and manage their workload effectively.

“If you own your own business, it can be hard to switch off, however, you still need some respite, so it’s crucial to put practices in place in order to achieve an effective balance.”

Credit source: www.paymentsense.co.uk/blog/uk-work-life-balance-survey/