Open all hours – new survey shows workers required to talk shop in leisure time

The increasing popularity of hybrid working could be encouraging workers to be ‘always on’, according to a Censuswide survey commissioned by Moneypenny of over 2,000 general UK consumers. The survey shows that the majority (56%) are accepting work related communications out of hours. Of these workers, 13% said they’ve received work-related comms at any time of night or day.

The survey showed that willingness to accept communications out of hours varies across the generations, with younger workers seeming more likely to work to rule, as Gen Z and Millennials are the generations least likely to accept communications at any time of day or night (6% and 9% respectively), while Babyboomers are most likely to pick up a work call or email 24/7 (26%).

The survey also examined the popularity of different forms of work communications, and while texting is increasingly popular for personal communications, this is not reflected at work, where emails are the top choice for 51% of those surveyed, followed by instant messaging such as Teams or Slack 34%, then the phone 31%, text messaging 18%, and video conferencing such as Zoom 16%.
Work communication choices appear to vary across the generations, as emailing is the preferred choice for 57% of both Babyboomers and Gen X, while only 40% of Gen Z prefer this. In contrast, instant messaging was the top form of work communication for Gen Z, while only 31% of Gen X and 13% of Babyboomers prefer this.

It seems that Gen Z feel less comfortable than other age groups in communicating for work, perhaps because of their lack of experience in the workplace compared to older generations: 63% of Gen Z admitted they feel less comfortable communicating for work than for personal reasons, compared with only 29% of Gen X and 17% of Babyboomers who admitted this.

Despite their discomfort in communicating at work, 42% of Gen Z admitted they are less careful in communicating at work, while only 21% of Gen X and 6% of Babyboomers admitted this.
Wendy Swash, Chief Operating Officer from Moneypenny commented: “Businesses need to think carefully about the training they give their people in how to communicate in the workplace, adapting this for the different generations, recognising their strengths and weaknesses in using different communication channels. Equally they need to think about the type of communications preferred by their customers. At Moneypenny we handle communications for a wide range of different businesses, from large financial organisations, law firms, retail businesses and estate agents to small businesses, tradesmen and everything in between and the mix of communication channels varies hugely, according to their needs.”

ENDS
The Moneypenny research was conducted by Censuswide, among a sample of 2004 general consumers in the UK (nat rep) (18+). The data was collected between 06.08.2024 – 12.08.2024.