More than half of employees say they feel obligated to answer work emails and calls out of hours, research reveals.
A poll of 4,225 workers, conducted by YouGov for Business in the Community (BITC), found that 55 per cent felt pressured to respond to calls or check emails after working hours, with just 45 per cent saying they feel that they can switch off from work.
The survey also found that, over the last two years, two in five (41 per cent) employees have had to work overtime and/or struggled to take annual leave due to workload, compared to just 35 per cent in 2020.
Just one in five employers discourage staff from sending out-of-hours emails, poll finds
Two-thirds of adults in favour of ‘right to disconnect’ law, research shows
Should UK workers have the right to disconnect?
And more than half (54 per cent) of employees said they had too many priorities or targets, up from 51 per cent in 2020.
The data showed employers needed to understand the underlying factors driving the ‘always on’ culture, said Rachel Suff, wellbeing adviser at the CIPD, by ensuring workloads and targets were realistic and encouraged people to switch off.
“Managers need to role model healthy behaviour by not emailing their team out of hours and not working when ill,” she said, warning that “otherwise there’s a risk of work-related stress and higher sickness absence in the long run”.
Get more HR and employment law news like this delivered straight to your inbox every day – sign up to People...
The BBC has apologized and agreed to pay compensation to the couple behind PinkNews, an LGBTQ news website, after conceding that stories accusing them of sexual misconduct were false and defamator...