Not Enough Hours in the Day
“Life admin” is a phrase coined for those somewhat mundane tasks people have to do that take up precious time. Popular examples include managing our finances, making and attending health appointments and organising utilities and bills. Not the most exciting chore list!
With more than 4 million employees now working more than the standard 40 hours a week, it seems we lack the time outside work to complete these tasks with a number of us now using paid work hours to do so – around 82% according to a recent survey.
While we do not have the time outside of work due to increased hours, there are inherent security risks completing life admin in work to consider. These mainly relate to the security of private information stored on public machines. However employees may feel stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to fitting in everything they need to during the working week – it’s not uncommon to grind out 60+ hours for many.
High Anxiety Situations
Public meetings are another of the top causes of anxiety for UK workers, often causing them to smoke, drink or stay off work sick. Open plan layouts have been cited as inducing anxiety too due to the lack of privacy they offer. Employees can feel intimidated and some even experience rudeness as a result of this environment. With a high proportion of workers having daily meetings in their schedule too, the potential for a high-anxiety situation is considerable.
Disorganised Work Environments
Disorganisation in the workplace is another cited issue of UK workers as it reportedly decreases productivity. There’s science to back this up too – as getting rid of things we own and feel connected to elicits a pain response in the brain.
What Can Be Done?
These three points all relate somewhat to our struggles in switching off as we strive to succeed professionally. The dangers of an “always-on” society have been well documented; stress, burnout and sickness can all occur as a result of being too busy. However we can increase privacy at work and better treat our time in the office through flexible working. Such initiatives allow employees to either work at times when the office is quieter and more private, or take days during the week when they can forego the timely commute, put in their work hours at home and commit their time properly to important organisation and life admin tasks.
Modern working has many benefits, but perhaps it requires a little more fine tuning in order to create the best balance for UK workers!
Castle Hill House