Introduction
Key Findings
Results
Discussion

Work Life Study - Results

Description Of The Sample Population

Your Work Background

Despite the average time of almost two years with their respective company, the majority of participants seemed to have spent a relatively short time with their respective companies as more than half had been with their present employer for less than or exactly two years. Quite a substantial number though, 15.6 percent, had been working for their company between 10 and 20 years. Over half of the participants worked in relatively small companies employing between 10 and 100 employees. With regard to the definition of work level, the overriding majority, i.e. 44.4 percent, rated theirs as Managerial:



The population came from a variety of different professional backgrounds. Sales and Marketing was the most frequently chosen work definition, followed by Specialist and Professional.

Almost three-quarters of the target population worked a 5 day week, with almost a quarter putting in an extra one or two days. Very few reported working part-time. Nearly half reported working 35-45 hours a week, with a sizeable number working 45 to 60 hours. More than 10 percent admitted to working on average more than 60 hours.

Most people felt that they had reasonable control over the hours they worked with nearly half percent stating that the hours they put in are mostly justifiable.

Preferences about the desired working week pattern were nearly evenly split between those favouring a 4-day/9 hr week and those favouring variable arrangements. A 5-day week with a seven hours workday was also a favoured option:



Nearly half reported to take time out occasionally to take care of private matters in the work place. Over 80 percent reported to be devoting between 15 minutes and 1 hour a week to them, with Social Matters being mainly involved.

By far and large, the sample population took relatively little time off for personal reasons in the previous year, with the overwhelming majority having taken less than four days. Of those who did take time off (since nearly 30 percent did not report to have done so), the majority reported to have taken this time as 'sick' leave.

You and Your Company

On average, most people seemed to feel more committed to their company than the other way round. Regarding one's Workplace Support, Flexibility In Working and Respect were each chosen as the highest rank by an equal number of participants. For Job Satisfaction, Autonomy was ranked highest by the majority.

A large majority reported to have considered a career change:



The overwhelming majority cited Increased Pay as their main incentive for a career change, followed closely by More Flexibility and Prospect of Promotion:

Your Work/Life Balance

Most participants would chose to cut down on the number of hours worked per week in order to improve their Work/Life Balance with the way working hours are arranged coming a close second:



The overwhelming majority felt that their hobbies and leisure pursuits had suffered most from their work commitments:

Background Information About Yourself

The sample was almost equally split into Males and Females.

With an average age of 33, the majority percent of the sample population concentrated in the 26 to 35 age group followed by the 20-25 age group.

The majority of nearly 40 percent classified themselves as Single, with a substantial number reporting to be Married or Cohabiting with a partner:



Of those who had a partner, over half came from double earner households.

Ethnic minorities were underrepresented with over 90 percent of the participants being white. About a quarter reported to be caring for school-age children at home, with 11 percent having adult dependants

Principal Components Analysis (PCA)

A Factor Analysis (e.g. PCA) reduces large amounts of data, such as items in a questionnaire thus revealing any underlying dimensions. Here, for items 3a to 3s it was postulated that there were not 19 separate items all measuring different things, but that there were two distinct categories or factors. The first factor was considered to the individual perception of the Work/Life Balance, tapped on by such "I-statements" as 3a: "I would accept lower pay for working fewer hours in order to have more time for my personal life". The second category of statements was considered to be related to the working environment, tapped on by items consisting of more general statements about working environment, such as 3m: "In this organisation working long hours is often confused with commitment". Hence the second factor was hypothesised to relate to perceived company culture and support.

Once factors are extracted, it is a common procedure to rotate them. This is a mathematical procedure, which essentially will produce a clearer picture of findings. A Varimax procedure using orthogonal rotation, where factors are not allowed to correlate with each other, was used in order to clean up the factors. Two factors accounting for 34.9 percent of the total variance were extracted. Taking the content of the respectively highest loading items into account Factor I labelled Perceived Work Culture And Support and Factor II Focus Of Ambition And Individually Perceived Impact Of Work Demands.

Correlations

The next step was to examine whether the Factors correlated with other items in the questionnaire, such as age, company size or commitment. A correlation does not allow causal inferences though, it will merely display the presence or absence of a link between two variables.

The Factors were observed to correlate significantly with a number of other variables, such as time with one's company in month, commitment, the number of hours worked and age.

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