Long working hours and short lunch breaks are forcing staff to run their
personal lives from the office, a new study shows.
Eighty-seven per cent of employees with web access use it for personal
reasons – with sorting out private lives by checking bank details and finding
services such as hairdressers or plumbers the most popular use.
However, employers can rest easy – 76 per cent of those accessing the web
from their desks ensure that it does not affect their work time, by doing so
out of normal office hours.
The study by online classified directory service Yell.com shows that the
average lunch break is now just 35 minutes, while 7 per cent of employees
surveyed are too busy to take a break at all.
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Aaron Ross, chairman of the Work-Life Balance Trust, said: "In the
past, UK employees have come under fire for taking advantage of the internet
for personal use while they’re in the office. But this research illustrates
just how hard they are working to balance their personal and professional
lives.
"The findings highlight the need for compromise in the workplace, to
ensure that employers’ demands for productivity are not met at the cost of
workers’ all-important personal lives."
