Chew on this the next time you’re pondering your work-life alignment: 80 percent of people put in an average of 365 hours of unpaid overtime each year. They’re not spending this extra time at their desks, however: they’re racking it up by working after they’ve left the office. No wonder employers are increasingly becoming lax about punctuality.
Half of early risers check their work email while they’re still comfortably in bed; by 8 a.m., 68 percent have already checked their email. Night owls don’t fare much better: 69 percent refuse to go to bed without first checking their work email, while 40 percent admit to handling work-related email after 10 p.m.
These figures come from a survey of 1,000 U.S. employees by OnePoll for Good Technology. While many of these adults probably have flexible working arrangements or are freelancers, if it’s an accurate sampling of the populace, most probably report to traditional offices for 9-to-5 workdays. This is an even more troubling scenario, because it means that most of us put in two months each year of unpaid overtime.
Are these overzealous workers setting the expectation for employers that they are available to respond to email around the clock? Or has the economy forced employees to shift their hours of availability as proof of their loyalty to their jobs?
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(Photo credit: Mashable/Good Technology)
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