Working after hours?

  Posted on 09/09/2019

Employees feel pressure to work overtime – is it beneficial?

A recent survey by the Office of National Statistics has found that employees feel a need to work extra hours in a bid to appear more productive in their role.

The practice of being present at your place of work for longer hours than is required is called presenteeism.

The survey found that 43% of employees stay behind due to the fear of being classed as not committed to their role. The same survey found that 31% of bosses thought that leaving on time reflected badly on an individual. In Birmingham, 44% of employees felt they needed to stay behind at work, whilst Nottingham saw 43% of employees felt they had to demonstrate presenteeism. Leeds was the next City at 40%; London, by contrast, saw 39% of employees thought they had a need to work over.

Figures also found that the more people earned, the greater the need of presenteeism; 58% of employees who earned more than £50,000 were concerned that bosses and colleagues think they don’t work hard enough if they leave on time. However, working long hours was not necessarily productive.

The survey found that despite 31% of employers expecting staff to stay behind, 36% believe that a reduction in working hours would actually be more productive for employees.

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