O Ework

Pressure to Work: Employee Perspective

January 12, 2009

©SHRM 2009 SHRM Omnibus Employee Survey, January 12, 2009


• The findings covered in this presentation are from the

perspective of a sample of U.S. employees. The SHRM

Omnibus Employee Survey included a wide range of questions

that centered on the viewpoint of employees on a variety of

workplace issues. The data that follow are from a section of this

survey that asked employees about the pressure they feel to

stay “connected” to the workplace outside of traditional work

hours or when they are away from the office due to personal

reasons.

• SHRM collects a wealth of data on organizational and

workplace issues. Please visit www.shrm.org/surveys to access

our publications.

2

http://www.shrm.org/surveys

http://www.shrm.org/surveys



Is There Pressure to Stay Connected to Office?

3

©SHRM 2009 SHRM Omnibus Employee Survey, January 12, 2009 4

Within the past 12 months, how often have you…?

Note: Sorted in descending order by “never” data. Excludes respondents who answered “not applicable” or did not answer the question.

Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.


Within the past 12 months, how often have you…? (By Employee Level,

Organization Staff Size, Organization Sector and Industry)

•Differences by employee level:

•Executive-level and middle-management employees reported greater average

frequency compared with nonmanagement employees for 1) working after hours

(beyond scheduled time) during the week or on the weekends, 2) checking work

e-mail after hours (beyond scheduled time) during the week or on weekends, 3)

checking e-mail while on vacation, 4) checking e-mail while taking sick leave and

5) working through their lunch break.

•Differences by organization staff size:

•Employees from small-staff-sized organizations reported greater average

frequency than employees from medium-staff-sized organizations for 1) checking

e-mail while on vacation, 2) checking e-mail while taking sick leave and 3)

working through their lunch break.

•Employees from small-staff-sized organizations and large-staff-sized

organizations reported greater average frequency than employees from medium-

staff-sized organizations for checking work e-mail after hours (beyond scheduled

time) during the week or on weekends.

•Differences by organization sector:

•Employees from privately owned for-profit companies reported greater average

frequency than employees from publicly owned for-profit companies for working

after hours (beyond scheduled time) during the week or on the weekends.


Within the past 12 months, how often have you…? (By Employee Level,

Organization Staff Size, Organization Sector and Industry - continued)

•Differences by industry:

•Employees from consulting companies reported greater average frequency than

employees from retail/wholesale trade for 1) checking work e-mail after hours

(beyond scheduled time) during the week or on weekends and 2) checking e-

mail while on vacation.

•Employees from health care and social assistance (e.g., in-home care, nursing

homes, EAP providers, hospices, etc.) and “other” industries reported greater

average frequency than employees from retail/wholesale trade for working

through their lunch break.

Note: Based on a scale where 1 = “never” and 4 = “frequently.” Only significant differences are presented.


To what extent do you feel pressure in your current position to…?

Note: Sorted in descending order by “no pressure” data. Excludes respondents who responded “not applicable” or did not answer the

question. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.


To what extent do you feel pressure in your current position to…? (By Employee

Level)


•Executive-level and middle-management employees reported greater average

degrees of pressure than nonmanagement employees for 1) working after hours

(beyond scheduled time) during the week or on the weekends, 2) working longer

hours now, compared with 12 months ago and 3) not taking vacation time/time

off/time away from the office.

Note: Based on a scale where 1 = “no pressure” and 4 = “great deal of pressure.” Only significant differences are

presented.


In your current job, which of the following are the main sources of pressure to

work after hours (beyond your scheduled time) during the week or on the

weekends?

n=321

Note: Includes respondents who reported “little pressure”, “some pressure” or “great deal of pressure” to work after hours. The

“other” category includes responses such as covering work/shifts for other workers, client demands and needing the overtime pay.

Percentages do not total 100% due to multiple response options.


In your current job, which of the following are the main sources of pressure to

work after hours (beyond your scheduled time) during the week or on the

weekends? (By Employee Level and Organization Staff Size)


•Middle-management employees (62%) were more likely than nonmanagement

employees (44%) to report self-imposed pressure.

•Executive-level employees (23%) were more likely than nonmanagement

employees (6%) to report pressure due to demands from people who support or

invest in the organization.

•Nonmanagement employees (12%) were more likely than middle-management

employees (3%) to report other pressures.


•Employees from medium-staff-sized organizations (22%) were more likely than

employees from small-staff-sized organizations (10%) to report pressure from top

management (e.g., executive level, c-suite).

•Employees from large-staff-sized organizations (61%) were more likely than

employees from small-staff-sized organizations (39%) to report pressure to meet

project or performance goals.

Note: Only significant differences are presented.

n=321



Working While Sick?

11


During the past 12 months, on average, how often have you gone to

work sick because you felt that you had to?

Note: Excludes respondents who answered “not applicable, I have not been sick in the past 12 months” or did not answer the question.

Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.

n=534


Why did you feel that you had to go to work while you were sick?

6%

5%

5%

10%

19%

27%

39%

48%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Other (please specify:)

I had used up all my leave time

I had not accrued enough leave time yet (e.g., new employee)

Fear of discipline if I stayed home

I did not want to use my leave time

I could not financially afford to take time off

I had too much work to do/impending deadlines

No one was available to cover my workload

n=443

Note: Excludes respondents who indicated that they had not gone to work sick in the past 12 months and those who did not answer

the question. “Percentages do not total 100% due to multiple response options.


Why did you feel that you had to go to work while you were sick? (By Employee

Level, Organization Staff Size, Organization Sector and Industry)


•Middle-management employees (57%) were more likely than nonmanagement

employees (3%) to report that they had too much work to do/impending

deadlines.

•Nonmanagement employees (21%) were more likely than executive-level

employees (3%) to report that they did not want to use their leave time.

•Nonmanagement employees (31%) were more likely than middle-management

employees (16%) to report that they could not financially afford to take time off.


•Employees from large-staff-sized organizations were more likely than

employees from small-staff-sized organizations to report that they had too much

work to do/impending deadlines (54% compared with 36%) and that they did not

want to use their leave time (32% compared with 15%).

•Differences by organization sector:

•Employees from “other” sectors (25%) were more likely than employees from

privately owned for-profit companies (3%) or government entities (1%) to report

that they had not accrued enough leave time yet.

•Employees from government entities (41%) were more likely than employees

from publicly owned for-profit companies (15%), privately owned for-profit

companies (13%) or nonprofit entities (18%) to report that they did not want to

use their leave time.

•Employees from publicly owned for-profit companies (25%) and privately owned

for-profit companies (37%) were more likely than employees from government

entities (8%) to report that they could not financially afford to take time off.

n=443


Why did you feel that you had to go to work while you were sick? (By

Organization Staff Size, Organization Sector and Industry – continued)

•Differences by industry:

•Employees from government /public administration entities (46%) were more

likely than employees from services – accommodation, food and drinking places

(4%) to report that they did not want to use their leave time.

•Employees from financial services (e.g., banking) (43%) were more likely than

employees from educational services/education entities (4%) to report that they

had used up all of their leave time.

•Employees from manufacturing (36%), retail/wholesale trade (42%),

transportation/ warehousing (44%), utilities (67%) and “other” industries (37%)

were more likely than employees from government/public administration entities

(3%), and employees from services – accommodation, food and drinking places

(58%) were more likely than employees from educational services/education

entities (13%) or government/public administration entities (3%), to report that

they could not financially afford to take time off.

Note: Only significant differences are presented.

n=443


To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement:

“My organization promotes a culture that discourages employees to

come to work sick or otherwise distracted (presenteeism).”

n=593

Note: Excludes respondents who did not answer the question. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.



Flexible Work Arrangements – Will They Affect Your Job?

17


Regardless of whether your organization currently offers flexible work

arrangements (e.g., telecommuting, flextime, compressed workweek, etc.), how

concerned are you that if you take advantage of flexible work arrangement

options…?

Note: Sorted in descending order by “not at all concerned” data. Excludes respondents who did not answer the question. Percentages may

not total 100% due to rounding.


Regardless of whether your organization currently offers flexible work

arrangements (e.g., telecommuting, flextime, compressed workweek, etc.), how

concerned are you that if you take advantage of flexible work arrangement

options…? (By Employee Level)


•Middle-management employees and nonmanagement employees , compared

with executive-level employees, reported greater average degrees of concern

that taking advantage of flexible work arrangements will jeopardize their career

advancement opportunities and that they will be perceived as less committed to

their jobs.

Note: Based on a scale where 1 = “not at all concerned” and 4 = “concerned.” Only significant differences are presented.



• Sample comprised of 605 full-time or part-time

employed U.S. residents randomly selected by an

outside survey research organization’s web-enabled

employee panel, which was based on a random

sample of the entire U.S. telephone population.

• Survey fielded for a two-week period ending January

12, 2009.

• For the purpose of these analyses, small-staff-sized

companies include those with 1 to 99 employees,

medium-staff-sized companies have 100 to 499

companies and large-staff-companies are those with

500 or more employees.

Methodology

O Ework

Documents

multiple response

governmentpublic

organization

taking sick

government

organization

total 100

sized organizations