The transition to working from home during the pandemic has further blurred the line between work and personal life, according to a new survey from Adobe. As companies around the world prepare to implement hybrid work policies, Adobe surveyed 5.500 business employees and small business owners in seven regions of the world to learn more about how personal work-life balance looks like. affected by working remotely. While many initially thought that not having to spend hours commuting every day would give them more time, unfortunately that "free" time turned into more work time. Among those surveyed, 49% of company workers and 56% of SME managers say they now work more hours than they would like. In fact, both groups now work longer than the standard work week, with company workers working an average of 44,9 hours per week and SME managers an average of 45,1 hours. As the number of hours spent working increased, the pressure also increased to always be available even after clocking in for the day. Adobe has found that nearly half of corporate employees and 60% of SMB executives feel pressured to respond to customer emails and issues outside of business hours.
Burnout and the great resignation
This extra time spent at work created the perfect recipe for burnout, as more than a third of SME executives surveyed said they've seen employee burnout and burnout due to pressure at work during the pandemic. Burnout has affected top small business leaders as well (60%), with more than half (51%) saying they are starting to lose the passion that led them to start their own business in the first place. Shockingly, nearly half of essential small business owners said they would be ready to sell their business tomorrow if they could. Based on Adobe research, it's no surprise that more and more workers are choosing to leave their current jobs. However, Generation Z is leading the charge and more than half of the respondents in this group say they plan to look for a new job in the next year or so. They are also the generation least satisfied with the reconciliation of personal and work life (56%) and their work in general (59%). Of respondents in this group, 62% said they felt the most pressure to work during 'office hours', while a quarter said they worked best outside of the workplace. Standard 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. window In fact, nearly half of Gen Z report working a lot in bed. While employees' work-life balance has been negatively affected by the pandemic, with the right online collaboration software, the right productivity tools, and time-management apps, they may be able to regain some of lost time