Employees forced to balance work and home life

A recent report has revealed that up to three million UK workers are suffering intolerable stress as they seek to balance work commitments with home life.

The arena21 Work/Life Survey shows that with many employees forced between a rock and a hard place, either they suffer stress or they decide to use company time to enable them to undertake their personal responsibilities.

According to Oliver Quambusch of arena21 the answer is for employers to take some of the strain by, for example, introducing a corporate concierge service. This can result in increased productivity, better staff retention, improved staff morale and reduction in stress levels in the workplace.

Released in the run up to National Stress Awareness Day on November 7, the survey found that almost half of the employees polled had carried out personal chores during company time and that of these a quarter did so despite strong personal feelings of wrongdoing. This, claimed the report, is equivalent to three million severely stressed employees.

Topping the personal activities during working time were:

• Paying bills (30 per cent)



• Personal phone calls (24 per cent)



• Grocery Shopping (24 per cent)



• Shopping (19 per cent)



• Surfing the Net (17 per cent)



• Dealing with personal letters and e-mails (16 per cent)

Taken in overall context, according to the report, each year UK companies loose some £50 billion through staff doing what they would consider to be unavoidable essential personal chores such as paying bills and shopping.

Another £72 billion is lost through staff taking time out to arrange holidays, book tickets, and organise home repairs and important deliveries.

The report also estimates that £58 million is lost as employees catch up on their social life during the working day.

The survey was commissioned by arena21 a company that provides corporate concierge services to large firms seeking to get the most out of their staff. (SP)