63 per cent of Malaysian workers not spending enough time with family -- Jobstreet

by **Cals** Thu 17 Oct 2013, 18:14

Business & Markets 2013

Written by Bernama

Thursday, 17 October 2013 16:51

JOHOR BAHARU (Oct 17): Some 63 per cent of Malaysian workers have not been spending enough time with their family due to long working hours, according to a survey by Jobstreet.com.
The survey, which was conducted in September and participated by 954 employees across various industries in Malaysia, also showed that nearly 70 per cent spent two to five hours working beyond their official work hours every day.
Jobstreet.com country manager Chook Yuh Yng said work-life balance is about effectively managing between work and other activities that are important to the workers.
"Companies should improve their work-life balance strategy for staff as it is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to keep them engaged, recharged and motivated," she said in a statement today.
Without it, Chook said the red zone of stress, burnout and absenteeism could drain productivity and performance of the company.
The survey showed the main reason respondents gave for working overtime was unreasonable deadlines and an overloading of work, with greater pressures on workers to complete their task.
Nearly 75 per cent of respondents choose to stay late at the office to complete their heavy workloads, with the majority of them stating they are not paid for the extra hours they put in.
About 60 per cent indicated their company does not carry out any initiatives to promote work-life balance.
The survey also revealed that 54 per cent said they do not take their annual leave entitlement, but almost all responded that they still get emergency texts from their bosses.
Only 25 per cent of respondents indicated they do not get any interruptions from work during their holiday, while 78 per cent leave their handphone contactable by their boss all the time.
The majority of respondents felt companies needed to provide flexible work time, whereby employees can choose from a range of start and end times to work each day instead of a fixed work slot.
Another suggestion is that companies should have a work policy encouraging employees to work less that 40 hours a week, rather than making it compulsory to work from 9am to 6pm daily.