WORKING
THE BALANCE BEING IN THE OFFICE DOESN’T EQUAL BEING PRODUCTIVE!
P
eople in the UK work some of the longest hours in Europe. We are also some of the most stressed and anxious; according to the OECD in their 2019 study. Ranking the 13 best and worst countries for work-life balance they found that the UK is the 13th worst in the world. Quite a statement, I’ll give you a minute to reflect on that. So, what does that mean to our workforce? With people in the UK working some of the longest hours in Europe, it’s unsurprising why there are more people than ever seeking the elusive work-life balance. Technology was supposed to make it easier, however mobile devices are the biggest contributor to that feeling that you are never out of the office. In our culture of associating good workers with long hours, it can be very difficult to buck the system and leave on time let alone early. We need to start working smarter, not longer. Growing evidence, including a recent report from Microsoft, contradicts this wisdom. The above OECD study ranks Japan as 5th worst in the world, and they experience a phenomenon called ‘Karoshi’ which translates as death by overwork; they strongly
associate good employees with exhausted ones. In a bid to counter this culture, Microsoft in Japan recently switched to a four-day week and saw productivity increase by 40%. Big businesses making changes like this, are still so few and far between that they make headlines. But there are a growing number of smaller businesses, entrepreneurs and start-ups that are stepping in to counter this culture of overwork. One of the biggest driving factors is more women in the workplace. Women are more likely to be caregivers, which requires more flexible working, and they often struggle to get ahead in male dominated industries as people value different traits in men and womeni. Women in the workplace have increased from 57% in 1975 to 78% in 2017; this means that there is very nearly parity between men and women who work (80% men in 2018 were in employment). The increase of working women has led to a shakeup of the workforce, with leaders Sheryl Sandberg, Susan Wojcicki, Mary Barra and many others as the new poster-women of success. Ariana Huffington has said that she “used to live under the delusion that I had to burn out to succeed” and it was only after she collapsed from exhaustion in 2007, she realised that
L-R: Anita Racz, Amy Brown, Tunde Racz
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