February 1999
THE UK'S GREAT WORK/LIFE DEBATE
Patricia Layzell Ward, Library Link Convenor-in-Chief, UK
A survey has been carried out in the UK by WFD and Management Today amongst members of the Institute of Management and readers of Management Today about the balance between work/life. Perhaps one indicator of the seriousness with which the topic is viewed is that the findings are based on the views of nearly 6,000 respondents who represented organisations of every size and area of activity in the UK and some from overseas. The comments indicated that only 4 in 10 are reasonably sure that they have got their life in balance: many seem to be sacrificing their personal life for their work. In many cases managers feel that they are pushing staff too hard. A number of organisations seem to be unenlightened concerning the damage being done to their business and staff. An overview of the main findings follows.
The actual working week
- Overall men spend more time at work than do women - 28% of men and 18% of women are at work more then 51 hours.
- Private sector respondents tend to work longer hours than those in the public sector.
- One fifth routinely work 6 days.
- Long hours are seen to go with the job, only one-third have partial control over their hours.
The ideal working week
- Most managers would prefer a 4-day week with longer hours each day.
- Most would prefer to start early, and have little enthusiasm for late working.
Home life
- Women tend to have most responsibility when it comes to domestic chores.
- Men say decisions are shared - women are not so sure, over 4 in 10 women consider that most of the time they alone make decisions.
- Only half felt that they take their fair share of responsibility on the home front.
Dealing with personal matters
- 3 in 10 frequently have to take time out from work to deal with money or health
matters, or make personal phone calls.
- Apart from holidays, close to half did not take time off in the previous year for personal reasons, but when they did women were more likely to 'go sick'.
Balance in personal life
- A quarter would trade pay for more personal time.
- If they had to choose, a fifth would put their career before their personal life.
- A half are finding it increasingly hard to meet both work and personal commitments.
- Only 4 in 10 managers are reasonably happy that their work and personal life is in balance.
The balance at work
- Over two-thirds of managers are expected to ask more and more from their staff, and only one-third would deny that they push their staff too hard.
- Only a third say that flexible working would reduce efficiency.
- 3 in 10 say there are times when they would rather be at work.
Corporate culture matters
- Up to 4 in 10 say that workload pressure is a prime cause of staff turnover.
- Two-thirds say that working long hours is often confused with commitment, and half say that working longer hours has more to do with inefficiency than workload.
- Only one-third says that their employer does enough to help then maintain a healthy work/life balance, and many say their employer's commitment is no more than window dressing.
These are the views of a sample of managers in the UK (and some of the points would be echoed by academics in the ILS schools). But how far do library and information managers share the views? Are they representative of only UK managers at large? Are the pressures being reported in other countries? Some feedback would be welcome by those designing courses for ILS managers, both at the qualifying and CPD levels.
Note: the findings are reported in The Great Work/Life Debate - the Definitive Report available from WFD Books department, Freepost Lon 3590, London W3 6EE UK price �37.
Your comments would be most welcome.
