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Ernst & Young Study: Romanians hardly manage balance between personal and professional life
Romanians perceive more acutely than people from other countries changes with impact on the balance between the personal and professional lives taking place in the last three years. They do more overtime than employees from other countries, according to a study made by the audit and consulting company Ernst & Young.
The company made the study “Urban generations and their priorities”in the context of rapid changes taking place in the world and the approach differences among active generations in the labour market. The analysis is based on 2,500 answers to online questionnaires coming from respondents in the urban area aged between 15 and 55.
Over half (51%) of respondents consider that it is more difficult than three years ago to manage the balance between the professional and personal lives, while 26% consider it is easier to keep the balance at present.
“Romanians perceive more acutely changes with impact on the balance between the personal and professional lives than the rest of world countries. There is a similar perception in Germany, where 49% of respondents to a similar study made by EY at global level said it is was more difficult to manage the balance between personal and professional lives than three years ago. Germany was followed by Japan (44%),”EY shows.
People who have children felt to a greater extent the difficulty to manage the balance between personal and professional lives. 56% of people who are parents say it was more difficult to do that, compared to 50% of those who do not have children. Compared to the rest of countries, parents in Romania felt more acutely difficulties in the last three years, followed by parents in Germany (54%) and Japan (46%).
Half of respondents say the number of work hours have grown in the last three years, while only 14% say the number of work hours dropped in that period of time. People from Y generation (52%) feel the increase of work hours the most, while half of those from Boomers generation say number of work hours has been constant in the last three years.
Over 70% of employed respondents say they do overtime and 34% work more than 46 hours per week. Generation X and Boomers do most overtime - over 46 hours per week, while those from Y generation seem to be more moderate for overtime - most of them (41%) work up to 45 hours per week.
At the same time 86% of respondents with managerial responsibilities in Romania say they do overtime - almost double the time worked by managers in Germany (45%) or Great Britain (34%). However, according to Eurostat statistics, labour productivity in Romania is 6 times lower than the European average, 7.5 times lower than in Germany and 8 times than the Netherlands.
About half (47%) of respondents changed their jobs in the last three years for financial reasons and a third decided to keep their jobs. The most stable on the job over 2012-2015 were people from Boomers generation (61%), followed by X generation (36%) and Y generation (19%).
About half of working respondents gave up relaxing activities for financial reasons, while 28% postponed buying or renting a house/apartment and 14% postponed having a child for the same reasons. People from Boomers generation gave up relaxation activities (64%), X and Y generation being less likely to do that. 14% of respondents aged between 34 and 49 postponed having their first child for financial reasons and 6% of them of having the second child.
The most important factors to ensure balance between private and professional lives are observing legal norms for compensating overtime (61%), the possibility to schedule without restrictions holiday (54%) and observing rules for holidays for children and return to work after that period (46%).
About half (46%) of employed respondents benefit from flexible programs, while 5% work based on projects or requests. Over half (51%) of Y generation do not benefit from flexible programs, although the need for flexibility is high among them, according to world studies.
Employees who benefit most from flexible programs belong to Boomers generation: 53% of them have a form of flexible program and 7% work based on projects. Respondents who hold leading positions benefit from flexible programs to a greater extent (53%) compared to those who are not managers (43%).