Majority of newly remote professionals work weekends, survey says

Dive Brief:

Nearly 70% of professionals surveyed by Robert Half who started working remotely during the pandemic said they work on the weekend; 45% reported regularly working more than eight hours a day.
Parents may be spending more time working off-hours than workers without children, the survey said. Seventy-seven percent of parents said they typically work weekends, compared to 59% of professionals without kids, and 55% of parents said they work longer than eight hours a day, compared to 36% of non-parents.
"While remote work affords employees greater flexibility, it also makes disconnecting extremely difficult," said Paul McDonald, senior executive director of Robert Half. "Many people feel pressure to keep up with rising workloads and are putting in long hours to support the business and customer needs. But everyone needs time to rest and recharge in order to give their best."

Dive Insight:

The pandemic may have worsened certain work-life balance trends, according to various surveys. A Clockwise survey from April found that the average employee was spending more time in meetings and working at least an extra hour a week as workers adjusted to remote work. "Fragmented time," or time that Clockwise defined as a period of time shorter than two hours, also increased.

While the adjustment was easier than professionals anticipated, according to Indeed data, those who worked from home before the pandemic had already reported that working from home was more stressful than working from the office, a January Neuvana poll said. For these workers, "work-life balance [was] nearly nonexistent," Neuvana said, prompting many to work continuously.

Working families, especially, have been hard hit by both the sudden adjustment and the ongoing trouble with finding care as schools close or remain closed due to the pandemic. A majority of caregivers polled by Carewell in October said they felt depressed due to the stresses of caregiving, an issue COVID-19 has only exacerbated.

"The reality is parents and caregivers have been doing this now for five months, and they're throwing in the towel," Katelin Holloway, Founding Partner at 776, told HR Dive earlier in the year. "With school closures continuing into the fall, they can do the sprint but they can't do the marathon."