The modern person is used to checking work email at home and staying in touch by answering work calls around the clock. Researchers estimate that in this way the average person works an additional 1.5 months per year. 80% of those surveyed said they work even after they leave the office. At the same time, employees are still convinced that only employers need time tracking. Is it really so, if employees do not even notice how gratuitously they “give” 1.5 months of their life to the company.
Why do they do it: most do not want to allow chaos in work affairs. Half of the respondents noted that they can’t help but respond to emails even if the working day is over, because it’s important for clients and partners to get a quick response to requests. 31% of employees simply can’t take their minds off work even when they go home. A total of 1,000 people were surveyed. Most people find it difficult to do without time recording, they lose control over it.
The environment has become mobile. The ability to always be connected and have access to work email and apps is often a must have for many companies. Companies want to know what their employees are doing, so they implement systems that can keep track of their time.
Some researchers are sounding the alarm: Technology has become too much a part of our lives. People can’t maintain a healthy work-life balance: They work wherever they can. Nearly 70% of those surveyed check their mail until 8 a.m., and the same number won’t go to bed until they’ve looked at their emails. Specialists spliced work and personal: 60% read work correspondence, communicating with family, 40% – at lunch.
The illusion of working 24×7×365 is that you can do everything at once; in fact, it is very difficult. A person who simultaneously plays with a child and solves work issues on a cell phone is equally unproductive in both processes. It is impossible to have a meaningful conversation with friends and respond to work emails at the same time. Although at first glance, one would think that one is capable of multitasking and rationally keeping track of time at work. This is not the case.
The research center conducted a study, which showed that about half of the respondents work extra hours and stay at the office. 23% stay up to 1 hour every day, 15% stay for 2 to 3 hours, 2% stay about 5 hours, and 4% stay more than 5 extra hours. 56% of respondents usually go home on time. 24% of respondents stay at work every day. The reasons for this are rushes and a large volume of work tasks. If a company does not keep records of working hours, all overtime of employees becomes their voluntary charitable contribution to the development of the company.
Does it benefit the company itself? That’s debatable. In the long run, an overstretched employee will begin to decrease productivity, become more tired, lose motivation, and make a lot of mistakes. The manager should understand that time management is not just about operating the team at 200%. It is not beneficial to the company. Let’s note only one advantage of overtime work for employees – an opportunity to improve professional competence and self-release. But is it worth it, because then the whole life of a person is reduced to work, the development turns out to be one-sided.
In search of a way out of this situation, companies are trying to provide employees with a work-personal balance. They introduce such notions as flexible schedule, on-the-job childcare, distance work, rest rooms, mother and child. But the fact that this is a necessary requirement of the modern rhythm of life – no one no longer doubts. Accounting for working time should not drive an employee into a dead-end, when he is tied to the office by all possible technical means. Adequate time recording – as a barometer should indicate to a person the kinks in his daily schedule and not let him get lost in roles.