Are ecommerce professionals happy with their work-life balance? 77% of those who responded to our 2017 ecommerce salary survey, believe that ecommerce teams are growing and will continue to do so.
In an industry that is growing, is work-life balance in ecommerce being taken into consideration enough? Are ecommerce professionals happy with the balance between work and play?
For our latest two part #PandaPounds feature, we are going to delve into all the aspects that define work-life balance in ecommerce – overtime, the average working week and how managers can help employees feel more balanced.
What does an average working week look like in the life of ecommerce professionals? There is no doubt about how varied their week can be, but determining their work-life balance starts with their contracted working hours.
We can see that 37.5 contracted hours per week is the most popular answer, with 40 hours per week a close second. This remains relatively unchanged from 2016, though it is interesting to note that the majority of the 9% who selected ‘other’ are contracted to work 42-45 hours per week. Will we see the standard working week slowly extend as the industry evolves?
Overtime can have a big effect on work-life balance in ecommerce, and our respondents certainly do their share of it.
It’s not overly surprising to see those doing smaller amounts of overtime being relatively satisfied with work-life balance in ecommerce. However, as seen below, the majority of our respondents are doing more than one hour a week. Will sentiments towards work-life balance begin to change?
We can see now that work-life balance in ecommerce doesn’t feel like an achievable thing the more overtime people commit to (or are expected to do.) Whether they complete this overtime in the office, on the commute or at home, the negative effect on their work-life balance will show. Let’s take a quick look at where ecommerce professionals manage to squeeze in some overtime…
*Please note that respondents could give more than one answer to this question, so totals will not add up to 100%
As we can see, the office is the most popular (is that the right word?) place to do overtime. It could be they get to the office a bit earlier, or find that there is still plenty to do when it comes to the end of the day. Home is also a popular location for overtime…perhaps it’s an attempt to bridge the work-life balance gap?
Only 15% of our respondents will get some overtime in during their holidays, so at least most of our respondents know that holidays are the time to switch off!
There is plenty to cover when it comes to work-life balance in the ecommerce industry. Here’s what to expect in part 2…