Working From Home Adds More Than a Month of Overtime a Year
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. CREDIT: Work from Home Image via Shutterstock |
Checking all those emails at home and taking all those phone calls after normal work hours is adding up to the tune of a month and a half of overtime a year, new research has found. In that research, more than 80 percent of workers said that they continued to work from home after leaving the office.
A majority of those workers said they worked from home simply to stay organized for work, but half of the respondents said they felt obligated to answer emails because customers demand quick replies. An additional 31 percent said they performed work tasks at home because they could not switch off from work responsibilities.
"In today's 'always on' mobile environment, secure access to corporate email and apps is a 'must have' versus a 'nice to have' for nearly all companies," said John Herrema, senior vice president of Corporate Strategy for mobile security software company Good Technology, which conducted the research. "While most of our customers believe their employees do work more hours as a result of this accessibility, they also appreciate and welcome the enhanced work-life balance that comes when employees have more freedom and choice to get work done whenever and wherever they need to —whether that's in the office, on the road or while sitting in the stands at a child's baseball game."
[7 Ways to Improve Your Work-Life Balance]
Some workers, however, may be taking that convenience a bit too far. Almost 70 percent of people checked their emails before 8 a.m. and the same number said they would not go to sleep without checking their email. Half of the respondents said they checked their emails while in bed. Workers were not limited to checking emails in the bedroom. Nearly 60 percent of workers checked emails on family outings while nearly 40 percent of workers admitted to checking their email at the dinner table.
"When it comes to supporting a 'bring your own device' environment, it's important to take an approach that ensures data security without compromising the employee's privacy or personal experiences," Herrema said. "By shifting their management focus from 'devices' to 'apps' and 'data,' enterprises can allow employees to get work done on the go whenever they want, and still keep personal information private, separate and safe."
The information in this research was the based on responses from 1,000 workers.
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