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Pressure to Work: Employee Perspective

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.

SHRM Omnibus Employee Survey, January 12, 2009 ©SHRM 2009 2


Is There Pressure to Stay Connected to Office?


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)
n=321

•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.



Working While Sick?


During the past 12 months, on average, how often have you gone to
work sick because you felt that you had to?

n=534

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.


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

n=443

No one was available to cover my workload
48%

I had too much work to do/impending deadlines
39%

I could not financially afford to take time off
27%

I did not want to use my leave time
19%

Fear of discipline if I stayed home
10%

I had not accrued enough leave time yet (e.g., new
employee) 5%

I had used up all my leave time
5%

Other (please specify:)
6%

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

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)

n=443

•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.

Why did you feel that you had to go to work while you were sick? (By
Organization Staff Size, Organization Sector and Industry – continued)

n=443

•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.


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?


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.



Methodology

• 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.


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