Office Workers Skipping Bathroom Breaks

12.21.2015
HR & Safety

A survey released last month by Workfront,  and conducted online in July 2015 by Harris Poll among more than 600 employed adults, found that the majority of office workers (52%) admit to delaying going to the bathroom to meet a deadline.
One reason surrounding the challenges of finding time for “essentials” is that office workers find themselves too busy doing other nonessential tasks.
Barriers to Productivity
The vast majority (89%) of office workers say one or more factors get in the way of them doing their work.
In fact, office workers state that less than half (45.7%) of their workweek is actually spent performing the duties of their primary job.
Top offenders are “wasteful” meetings (57%), excessive emails (40%), unexpected phone calls (37%), and excessive oversight (35%).
After Hours
In addition to not being able to focus on their “real work,” 82% of office workers state they log into work/work email before or after standard business hours, with more than half (52%) doing so every day during a typical workweek.
Nearly three-fourths (72%) log into work/work email on the weekend, with 39% doing so every weekend.
The survey shows that of those who work outside standard business hours, they do so primarily to get ahead of their work (52%) or because they feel they have too much work to do (39%).
A quarter (25%) of workers feel that it is expected at their company.
The Lunch Break Lives On
Although office workers may delay bathroom breaks and spend more time in meetings than necessary, the lunch break still lives on with 76% of workers stating they take a half hour or more for lunch.
Also, most office workers feel that technology helps to improve productivity. More than nine in 10 office workers who access work information from anywhere (94%) say it has a positive impact on productivity, as do roughly eight in 10 of those who use mobile devices (82%) or project management software (79%).

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