Over two thirds (67%) of owner managers in Ireland’s small and medium sized businesses contact the office by phone or email when they are on annual leave, according to the annual SME lifestyle survey conducted by O2 Ireland. Of these, 41% make contact from the beach or swimming pool.
“Our survey continues to paint a picture of hard working entrepreneurs who work longer hours than their employees, bring work home and find it hard to switch off, even on holiday,” commented O2 Ireland’s Billy D’Arcy, head of business sales & services. Almost a third (30%) of those surveyed do not take their full entitlement to annual leave.
Some 60% of owner managers work over 40 hours a week. While the maximum average number of hours that can be legally worked by employees is 48 hours a week, a third of owner managers work more than 51 hours a week. In addition, 78% work at weekends, and of these, the majority (72%) work at weekends more than once a month.
Of those surveyed, 58% bring work home in the evenings. Almost a quarter (23%) bring work home every day while over a third (35%) bring work home two or three times a week, and 37% have missed important family events due to work commitments.
“The O2 survey results suggest that many owner managers find it hard to switch off but this by itself is not necessarily unhealthy,” commented Dr Joan Tiernan at UCD School of Psychology.
Dr Tiernan, who also chairs the Work & Organisational Psychology division of the Psychological Society of Ireland, added: “Research finds that the biggest cause of stress in the workplace is reporting into a boss. Owner managers in small and medium sized businesses, while they have other stresses, generally value the freedom which their work brings them. It is important, however, to be able to switch off and build in recovery time even if you enjoy work.”
The survey was conducted nationwide on behalf of O2 by market research firm TNS MRBI among 303 owners of small and medium sized enterprises employing between 1 and 250 people. It is estimated that there are some 250,000 small and medium sized businesses in Ireland employing almost 800,000 people, or 40% of the workforce.
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