Some employees stack up nocturnal work sessions throughout the week to get ahead on their work tasks. This strategy, however, could prove counterproductive and even damaging to their mental health.
According to a recent survey by the communication platform Slack, around 40% of office workers say they regularly work overtime, while more than half of those who work beyond their office hours (54%) say they do it because they feel obliged to do so.
Employees who resort to after-hours work often feel they don’t have enough time to complete their to-do list during the workday. Competing priorities prevent them from organising their time as they see fit, which is detrimental to their productivity.
Meeting load comes up frequently as an obstacle: one worker in four feels that they spend too much time in meetings, which now take place either remotely or around a table. This feeling is particularly widespread among managers, especially executives (55%).
A quarter of working people say they spend a large part of their time writing or answering email messages. And it’s not just an impression: according to a LiveCareer survey, office workers spend the equivalent of three weeks or even a month each year sorting through their professional mailboxes.
The proliferation of meetings and email messages – as well as notifications on professional messaging systems – contributes to ever more intense days, which are increasingly broken up in parts. Employees’ productivity is often interrupted, prompting them to make up for lost time outside their normal working hours.
Notably, this comes with its share of consequences: employees who feel obliged to work overtime tend to be more stressed and more dissatisfied with their careers than their counterparts who respect their working hours. They are also twice as likely to feel overworked.
This can lead to fatigue, exhaustion, and a general drop in productivity. Indeed, Slack’s report claims that employees who feel compelled to work overtime are 20% less efficient during their working day.
The survey involved 10,333 workers in the United States, Australia, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.