Exchanging ideas to create the well-being advantage

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has just released the results of a survey that myself and my colleague Professor Les Worrall conducted for them - and the results have hit the headlines. The aspect of the study that the media have picked up on has been the extra hours that managers put in to help them cope with their workload - the equivalent of an extra 40 days a year. Break this down to the average working day and it equates to 9 out of 10 managers typically working for an hour and 18 minutes a day longer than their contracted hours.

The result is that the TUC is urging people to work within their contracted hours to protect themselves from the stress that comes with this kind of work overload. While I broadly agree that routinely overloading staff is a bad thing, I’m not sure that if employees took them up on their advice it would remove this problem when we come to run the survey again next year. For a start, many of the private sector employees we surveyed this year would probably not still be in the same job next year if they refused to be at all flexible around their working hours. But more importantly, I think that we have moved beyond thinking about working hours in such a black and white way - it just isn’t as simple as saying that either we work long hours or we work our contracted hours.

There are two parties involved in the psychological contract between an employer and employee and both have responsibilities. There are links here to my previous post (Jan 11th 2008) about work-life balance and flexible working. What I’m talking about is a more sophisticated approach to working hours and workload based on good relationships and trust between a line manager and his/her team members.

It’s critical that line managers are able to communicate a clear sense of purpose to employees – so that they know why they come into work every day and what they need to achieve to help the organisation to be successful. Employees also need to know the parameters within which they are working to meet these objectives – for example, can they work at home when they need to? Can they work until 9pm one night and come in at lunchtime the next day? Or is it strictly 9-to-5? It also helps if employees feel free to challenge these assumptions and managers show that are listening by responding to good ideas.

On the employee side, it’s about taking responsibility and proactively searching for the right balance. As employees we all have a certain level of ‘discretionary effort’ that we can give to our employer or withhold for ourselves and our non-work life. When we are motivated by our job and feel like we have a fair and equitable relationship with our employers we are much more likely to release our discretionary effort to them. Also, flexibility is not just about policies – it’s a state of mind. There’s nothing wrong with deciding to work late on a project once in a while if it brings you satisfaction and adds value to your organisation. The trick is to apply the same principles of flexibility when you feel burnt out and need a rest.
I thought that Jo Causon, CMI Director for Marketing and Corporate affairs summed up the importance of this two-way relationship nicely when she asked the question:

“Why are employers ignoring the impact of long hours on the health and performance of their employees and what responsibility are employees taking for how they manage themselves?”

For more on the story, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7251943.stm