US Workers Work an extra day every week

If you ever wondered whether US workers are workaholics or not, well, now you have proof. 80% of US workers work after work, 'after hours.' In fact, they work long enough that every week they work the equivalent of an extra day, and it is largely because technology has eroded the line between work and home life. That is a very, very bad thing.

The study comes from a enterprise mobility company called Good Technology. They polled 1,000 US workers, admittedly a fairly small number, to find out about work habits. What they found is that 80% confessed to working after leaving the office. The reason? Half felt they had 'no choice.' After all, in a connected world responses are expected instantly.

When we wake up, the very first thing we do is grab our phone and check our email. half of the respondents checked their mail around 7:09 AM, while 68% checked it before 8 AM. 69% have to check their email before going to sleep, while 40% check it after 10 PM. 57% check their mail on family outings. 38% even check their email at the dinner table. In total, the extra time we spend working on work matters outside of work is 7 hours. That is 1 hour short of a full work day every single week.

It seems that work and life separation is becoming nonexistent. We're always on, always working even when we're not. This is something I've noticed myself, but I always assumed it was a phenomenon most associated with web workers. That the always on behavior has permeated more normal work-life conditions is truly terrifying.

TechCrunch Photo by : Elvert Barnes