Working the Day and Night Away

The days of the 9-to-5 are over confirms a new Regus study that finds most South African workers stay late and bring work home with them.

Almost half of workers in South Africa work well over eight hours a day and over 50 percent regularly take work home to finish in the evening.  

This evidence of long working hours is seen in the latest global survey findings from Regus, the world’s largest provider of flexible workplaces, canvassing the opinions of over 12,000 business people in 85 countries.  Arguably pressure on working hours has increased in recent years because of slow economic recovery in mature economies and, conversely, very rapid growth in emerging ones.

Key findings include:-  

* 39% of Johannesburg workers and 38% of Cape Town workers usually work between nine to eleven hours every day compared to 38% of global workers; 

* 14% of workers in South Africa  and 10% globally regularly work more than eleven hours a day;

* In South Africa 58% of workers take tasks home to finish at the end of the day more than three times a week compared to 43% globally;

* Remote workers globally are more likely to work eleven hour days (14%) than fixed office workers (6%) and to take tasks home to finish (59%) than fixed office workers (26%); 

* Similarly, South African remote workers (17%) were found to take tasks home to finish more frequently than fixed office workers (8%);

* Male workers in South Africa (16%) were more likely to work eleven hour days than large business employees (9%). 

Regus spokesperson comments: “This study finds a obvious blurring of the line between work and home. In South Africa, ranked 7th in the world for the prevalence of mood disorders and 6th for the prevalence of anxiety disorders by the South African Stress and Health (SASH),  the long-term effects of this over-work could be damaging both to workers’ health and to overall productivity as workers drive themselves too hard and become disaffected, depressed or even physically ill.  

“While women globally and in South Africa were found to be less likely to work longer hours, probably because they are more likely to be employed in part-time work, South Africa proves an exception with large company workers more likely to clock up the hours than small company employees”. 

“While our survey found remote and mobile workers generally worked longer hours, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that remote workers are more productive, have a higher job satisfaction and lower stress levels.   These workers typically spend far less time commuting, freeing-up more time for their job.  

Businesses that enable their employees to work from locations closer to home and manage their time more independently will offset the stress of a poor work-life balance and gain more productive, committed and healthy staff.”