61. Employees don’t have work-life balance
Competing pressures of work and caring responsibilities can impact the wellbeing of employees and their families. Many parents and carers are finding it difficult to balance their work and family commitments. They report that their personal wellbeing and family relationships have suffered as a result.
A study found that two-thirds of working parents and carers are feeling too emotionally or physically drained when they got home from work to contribute to their family. Half of them had missed out on family activities in the past month due to time they had to spend at work.
Two-thirds of working parents and carers has reported that they are struggling to look after their own physical and mental health. That’s a startling statistic by anyone’s measure. They also find it difficult to manage household chores and caring for family.
62. Employees can be reactive, rather than proactive
Employees could move into other positions within their organisation. But the reason they don’t is because of their reactive approach. They do not outperform anyone on their team. Instead of trying to improve, they complain about how bored they are and even gossip about others.
This reactive approach would have gone something like, ‘I am very interested in becoming a trainer. What performance objectives and/or projects can I complete to move towards this path?‘
Instead, employees can be taking a more proactive approach to their work. They should be direct about what they want to proactively accomplish or create for themselves a positive outcome.
63. Employees are experiencing burnout
Burnout is now officially recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO). By doing this, the WHO lends its influence on the idea that work stress can truly affect health, which could lead to health professionals and researchers taking it more seriously.
One multi-year study found that burned-out workers were over 80% more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes.
64. Employees have more mental health issues
A study found that close to 60% of respondents had symptoms of a mental health condition in the past year. The same percentage didn’t discuss their mental health conditions at their workplaces. About one-third had symptoms that lasted more than a month.
Most prevalent were symptoms related to anxiety (37%), depression (32%), and eating disorders (26%).
Many were not willing to take it anymore – 20% voluntarily left roles in the past year for mental health reasons. This number skyrockets to 50% for Millennials and 75% for Gen Z.
65. Work stress increases sickness and poor health
It is common knowledge that prolonged stress will lead to sickness and poor health. The stress of working long hours and being discriminated against are other causes of work stress.
Harvard Medical School conducted a study on over 500,000 people and found that those who worked 55 hours or more per week were 33% more likely to have a stroke and 13% more likely to have a heart attack.
A study by Diabetes Care showed that workers who experienced increasing stressful jobs were 57% more likely to develop diabetes.
The long-term burnout and stress are real. Logically stepping away from work for the sake of one’s health is far more important than putting themselves at risk with a host of illnesses.
Here’s the problem. If working longer hours causes sickness, then employees’ health and job will also be at risk. They will not be able to hang on to their jobs as they will burn out. They cannot compete with younger employees as they cut back on their working hours just to reduce the likelihood of sickness or poor health.
Research by Wellness Daily found that 3.74 million Australian workers have used at least one day of their sick leave for mental health or stress in the past 12 months. The research found that full-time workers were more likely to have taken leave for mental health, compared to part-time workers (36% compared to 32%).
66. Work stress triggers employee distractions
When employees feel stressed or when they feel lonely, uncertain, anxious, fatigued, they look for psychological relief from these discomforts with something they do with their bodies, according to a study by Indistractable.
Employees will frequently check their digital devices or emails. They do something with technology to alleviate that discomfort and they get digitally distracted.
The study found that employees checked their smart-phones every 20 minutes while they are awake. This kills their ability to concentrate at work.
67. Employees distracted by smartphone and social media
Employees are constantly distracted by their smartphones or social media during work hours.
ReMarkable found that 75% of Americans blamed digital notifications for their procrastination and lack of focus at work.
Research from Rise revealed that a third (32%) of Australians are regularly distracted by their smartphones and social media at work. More than half (51%) check their phones or social feeds up to 10 times a day.
Over half (52%) of Australians who are distracted by their smartphone or social media during work hours also admit that they would be less distracted if they felt happier at work.
68. Employees’ working environments are harmful
The workplace environment is a very crucial determinant for employee performance, morale, and productivity. An effective workplace creates an environment where performance and results can be achieved by workers. The tasks performed by them are directly affected by the physical environment in which they are in.
The American Working Conditions Survey found that the workplace is very physically and emotionally taxing. More than one-half reported exposure to unpleasant and potentially hazardous working conditions. Nearly one in five are exposed to a hostile or threatening social environment at work.
The study also found that nearly two-thirds of workers experienced at least some degree of mismatch between their desired and actual working conditions.
Research published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics documented significantly higher injury or illness rates in organisations that meet or just beat analyst forecasts when compared to organisations that miss or comfortably beat analyst forecasts. These injuries were associated with increases in employee workloads related to organisations wanting to meet financial targets.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there is a 7% increase in fatal injuries between 2015 and 2016. This is the third consecutive increase in annual workplace fatalities. Work injuries involving transportation incidents remained the most common fatal event in 2016. This accounts for 40%. The second most common is violence and other injuries by persons or animals with an increase of 23%.
69. Employees face occupational violence and aggression
Occupational violence and aggression is when an employee is abused, threatened, or assaulted in a situation related to their work. It might come from anywhere – clients, customers, the public or even co-workers.
Violence and aggression can happen in any industry. It happens more often in health, aged care, disability, youth services, education, law enforcement, retail, hospitality, security, cash-handling, finance and banking.
In the US, 70% of occupational violence occurs in healthcare industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has indicated nurses and other healthcare workers are more likely to face workplace violence than police officers and prison guards.
70. Employers make payroll errors
Employees will receive less pay because employers are known to make payroll errors.
Some errors include:
(1) Payment for out-of-hours work where they may be deemed work time, even if they occur out of hours.
(2) Pay during resignation notice period – Employers are required to pay an employee who resigns for the full notice period, even if the employer insists they not actually serve out the period.
If the employee who does not work out the full notice period, then employers need only pay them for the time worked.
(3) Contractor payments versus employees salary – This can be a very grey area as what constitutes a contractor is very hard to determine.
(4) Using the wrong awards or rates to compute the payroll payable – Employee-related federal and state-based labor legislations, as well as employee awards, can change regularly. Employers need to be aware of their legal obligations to pay employees their legal entitlement.