Work and Well-Being: Can They Coexist?

Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin-brand empire, said in an interview last year that if you put your employees first, customers and shareholders will also get better results. The results of a recent survey by Deloitte indicate that U.S. companies may not have been paying attention.

In Deloitte’s first-ever Workplace Pulse survey, about one in three respondents was not comfortable taking personal time or vacation time off, and nearly as many (32%) said they consistently placed work commitments over family/personal commitments. Not surprisingly, perhaps, millennials are struggling hardest to maintain a work-life balance.

Less than half of those surveyed (48%) said that their organization values their life outside work. A Deloitte executive said:

Organizations are investing in more and more benefits and perks associated with well-being, like flexible work options and unlimited vacation days, aimed at winning the war for talent. But our survey shows businesses can do more to create a culture of well-being, which goes beyond offering generous programs and focuses on everyday behaviors. Well-being is not mutually exclusive to delivering value to clients, in fact it’s important in any high performance culture.

Watching the way managers and executives handle their personal commitments has a definite impact on the way employees handle their own. Some 39% of respondents say that if they saw their direct managers prioritizing personal life over work, they would be more inclined to do the same thing. Nearly as many (38%) said the same thing among senior executives.
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Among millennials, 36% said they have consistently placed work commitments above personal commitments, compared with 27% of Generation X employees. And more men than women (20% compared with 13%) wished their CEO and other organization executives were more open about their own experiences and challenges related to a work-life balance.

And what do people like about their work? When asked what has the most impact on their happiness at work, 59% said their co-workers, 31% said their direct managers 8% said their executive managers, and 2% said their human resources department.

Methodology: The survey was conducted via an online poll of 1,016 full-time employed adults across generations, in the United States from October 6 to 12, 2015. Data had been weighted to reflect the demographic composition of the United States per the latest U.S. Census.