30% of workers don’t feel as if they have a good work/life balance

A survey carried out by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reveals that almost a third of UK workers are struggling to establish a good work/life balance.

With technology improving at such a rapid rate, and the modern office opening up its interiors to become more hybrid workspaces, UK workers are struggling to clock-off, a study by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) has shown.

The study, which surveyed 2,518 employees across France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and the UK, found that UK workers find it more challenging to separate their personal and professional lives than their European counterparts, reports HR Magazine.

 “1 per cent of people aged 18 to 24 did not consider work/life balance an important part of their job.”

On average, 33 per cent of European workers surveyed admitted that a bad day at work affected their personal life, compared to 38 per cent in the UK. Almost a third (30 per cent) of British workers feel their work does not make a difference.

Across Europe, women tended to find a work/life balance more appealing when considering a job , with 62 per cent identifying it as a very important feature of their ideal job compared to 52 per cent of men.

Younger employees were less likely to identify work/life balance as important. 1 per cent of people aged 18 to 24 did not consider work/life balance an important part of their job, falling to 10 per cent of people aged 40 to 49. Over-65s were found to be the demographic of the most concern, however, with more than 13 per cent not identifying work/life balance as an important feature of their ideal job.

“The rise of flexible working, and the widespread usage of workplace technologies to support it, has brought many benefits yet organisations also risk encouraging an ‘always-on’ working culture. Employees faced with this working style are likely to become less engaged, and this type of working may even have a negative impact on productivity,” said Jeff Phipps, managing director UK and Ireland at ADP. “Technology has increasingly blurred the lines between work and personal lives, and HR teams and business leaders should give individuals the autonomy to choose what their work/life balance looks like. Finding the right individual solution can’t be achieved with a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

“Individuals that want to blend work and life and work more flexibly should be able to, while those that want to keep the two separate should also be able to. The most important thing is for businesses to create a culture of trust so that employees can be open when things are not going well and work together to fix it.”

ADP and Circle Research conducted an online quantitative survey in April 2018 of 2,518 employees. The sample was a representative mix of employees by age, gender, full-time/part-time workers, salary brackets and seniority.