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Survey provides insight
into 'Mobile Britain' as UK moves into a wireless world
A nationwide survey from
e-MORI, sponsored by Toshiba, has revealed that mobile computer users work
longer hours than the average worker and believe they are more productive.
Despite laptop users working an average six day week, the research
highlights enthusiasm for flexible working practices, due in part, to the
freedom of being able to work anywhere, at any time.
Report highlights
The report, which focused on
laptop users in Britain, discovered that:
-
Mobility can mean more
hours - 44% of laptop users in employment work 45 hours or more
per week (and their average working week is 5.6 hours per week more than
the national average of 37.9 )
-
Productivity increases
- 64% believed that their laptop has made them more productive but 28%
admit they have worked longer hours since using the technology
-
Opportunities not
taken - despite having a laptop, 4 out of 10 (39%) of laptop
users in employment never work from home. This indicates that the benefits
of mobile technology are not being utilised
-
Inflexible employers
limit benefits - 1 in 4 laptop users (26%) are prevented from
working from home more regularly by their employers
-
Technology not utilised
- just over half of laptop users use their PC to access the Internet (54%)
and email (57%) and 62% admit to not using all of the functions on their
laptop that could be of use to them
-
More work not stress
- only 1 out of 7 (15%) of laptop users who work felt that having a laptop
increases stress
Despite working more hours than average,
nearly nine out of ten (88%) laptop users who work say that they believe
in working hard and playing hard. Four fifths (81%) say that although they
enjoy their work, their private life is more important to them
Work-life issues
That laptop users work long
hours should perhaps come as no surprise. The "long hours
culture" is most prevalent amongst managerial and professional
groups, and amongst highly mobile workers such as sales executives - and
these are the people who at present are more likely to have laptops.
Other recent research, for
example the Institute of Management's Quality of Working Life
report found that 77% of their members worked over 40 hours per
week, and 40% worked over 50 hours.
But is the finding that laptop
users work long hours a good thing? The findings of this report offer some
hope for those wishing to restore some work-life balance. It shows that,
within the context of a long hours culture, flexible working (using
laptops) can help to mitigate the ill effects of long working hours.
Firstly, if long hours
have to be worked, it is better in most cases to to be able to do it in a
more congenial environment. Laptop users tend to be positive on this
score. 70% of them agree that developments in mobile technology offer them
more freedom in their working lives. The report shows that workers with
laptops believe they are effective at balancing home and work, with only a
minority finding it more difficult to separate home and work since getting
their laptop.
The research also threw up
some interesting statistics on where and when people use their notebooks.
62% of those who use their laptop at home use it in the lounge while 40%
use it in the bedroom. Laptops also enable users to do more than one
activity at the same time, with two fifths of those who use their laptop
at home listening to music (62%), talking on the phone (59%) or talking to
other household members (63%) while using their laptop. Users seem to be
moving away from the 'head down, do not disturb' attitude of recent years.
Secondly, there are
productivity benefits in working flexibly using laptops. The after-hours
office culture often consists of desultory "presenteeism" -
being seen to be working rather than doing anything productive. Or it can
consist of mandatory wine-bar jollity - perhaps more entertaining than
grinding out a couple more hours at the desk, but just as destructive to
the work-life balance.
This is not to say that there
are not issues to address here - one wonders what partners think of
excessive use of the laptop in the bedroom, for example. But the ability
to get home in time for supper with the kids and then polish off that
report at a more family-friendly time is the type of benefit that is
possible.
A wireless revolution
We're only at the beginning of
major changes in flexible work patterns brought about by mobile
technology. According to Con Mallon, General Manager, Marketing at Toshiba
UK:
"With an estimated £2
billion being spent on notebooks in 2001 and with 64% of the adult
population using a mobile phone, we're on the verge of a wireless
revolution.
"We're still concerned
that mobile technology is not being utilised fully. Businesses seem to
think that by giving employees a notebook PC and flexi-time that they are
a somehow enlightened - we feel that the solution it's more complex than
that."
The aim, then, must be to
capitalise on the changes which are transforming workplace IT and
communications. And that means putting the right policies in place to
ensure both that companies benefit and that employees have improved
working conditions and home-life balance.
Flexibility comment
This is a fascinating report.
It highlights the advantages of flexible work as perceived by
practitioners. But it also highlights the need to have the right training
and management structures in place to ensure that the long hours culture
is not simply transferred to the home. At
the end of the day, perhaps the moral is "work ethic good, long hour
culture bad" - it's all to do with quality as opposed to quantity.
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