What Does the “Work-Life Balance” Currently Look Like in the United States?
Anyone who’s spent any amount of time in the business world, especially as an entrepreneur, has probably heard the phrase “work-life balance” at some point. The general idea is that we should be able to find a clear divide between our work lives and our personal lives, and figure out a way to balance the time we spend in each sphere so we achieve some sort of harmony.
But does that balance currently exist in the United States?
Here are a few interesting statistics from a 2014 study by Hamermesh and Stancanelli:
- Americans work 41 hours per week on average. This is a fair amount more than other highly developed and industrious nations such as the UK (38.4), Germany (36.9), France (35.7), Spain (34.6) and the Netherlands (32.7).
- Nearly 30 percent of Americans regularly work weekends, compared to 25.5 for the UK, 22.4 for Germany, 21.8 percent for France, 18.7 for the Netherlands and 9.6 for Spain.
- Americans are much more likely to work nights, with 26.6 percent of American employees working past 10 p.m. Compare this to 18.6 percent for the UK, 13 for Germany, 7.2 for France and 6.9 for the Netherlands.
Now, some of these people might be required to work weekends and nights simply because of the type of job they have. But consider these additional statistics from a survey conducted by Wrike:
- 87 percent of respondents say they regularly overwork, with 39.2 percent saying they overwork by more than five hours per week.
- People working late at night were much more likely (26.7 percent) to feel overloaded than people who get their work done during the day (10.2 percent)
- Regular employees and team members were most satisfied with their work-life balance, but only at a 50.8 percent rate. Business owners, meanwhile, only had a 29 percent satisfaction rate with their work-life balance.
So what does all of this mean? Basically, Americans, more so than people in any other country in the world, are working long hours and having difficulty maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
Does this touch a chord with you? What steps do you take to ensure you are not overworking yourself on a regular basis, and that you are able to separate your work and personal lives?
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
by Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Mobit Certified Partner. We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.
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