New survey: Half of employees want to work less | Life & Knowledge

The German economy is complaining about the shortage of workers. In addition, working hours in this country are below the EU average. Nevertheless, more than half of employees in Germany want to work less.

Around a third are prepared to buy their way out in exchange for less work. 34 percent would even accept less money for more vacation days. This is the result of a survey commissioned by the career network Xing.

Companies in distress: no new employees

More than 40 percent of respondents report that their company cannot find suitable employees. 30 percent complain about increased workloads workplace and bad mood.

However, six out of ten respondents rejected the idea of ​​working more to counteract these problems. While the older generations of the “Baby Boomers“ (59 to 78 years) and “Gen X“ (43 to 59 years) 63 percent each said that overtime was not necessary, “Millennials“ (27 to 43 years) and “Gen Z“ (up to 27 years) consider this to be somewhat more important, with just over 50 percent each.

Bonus payments encourage overtime

With the right financial incentives, several respondents could imagine working additional hours: bonuses, premiums, higher salary or additional vacation days.

“These results show us that employees in Germany are less willing than ever to subordinate their private lives to their job, unless the conditions are right,” says Xing Managing Director Thomas Kindler.

Only 9 percent of Germans want to work more

On average, Germans work just 34.4 hours per week. This is below the European average of 36.9 hours. But almost half (49 percent) want to work even less.

Gen Z (53 percent) and Millennials (50 percent) in particular want to reduce their working hours. 48 percent of Gen X also want to work less. Among baby boomers, who will soon be retiring, the figure is only 37 percent.

Surprisingly, only nine percent would like to work more. A clear sign of change in the world of work.

Around half of employees are satisfied or even very satisfied with their work-life balance! But there are differences: women (49 percent) are less satisfied than men (55 percent).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *