Is the UK workforce able to maintain work-life balance?

With more and more women joining the UK workforce, conversations around balancing work and family life are essential. Read along to learn more about the sentiments of women and men in the UK with respect to the balance between their work and private lives.

Work-life balance can possibly imply different things for each one of us. For some, it may mean being able to have a fulfilled life outside of work, for some it may mean drawing a line between their work life and personal life, and for some, it may mean something totally different. Regardless, we all strive to strike a balance between our private lives and life at the workplace. But is it harder for women to find that balance compared to men?

In the first part of the series, we looked at the state of women in the workplace in the UK, their satisfaction with their salaries, promotions, impacts of pregnancy, and other aspects of their job roles. We also compared the responses from female respondents for some of the questions with that of their male counterparts to understand more about the gap in gender equality and the fact that organisations should promote it in the workplace.

Software Advice launched a survey with 1,001 participants (486 male respondents and 515 female respondents), above the age of 18 between 22nd December 2022 and 4th January 2023 from different parts of the UK. For the full methodology, scroll to the bottom of this article.

Half of the respondents work solely on-site

When we asked respondents about their current work circumstances, 50% said that they work solely on-site (out of this stat, 47% male and 53% female respondents expressed this view). Further, 39% said that they work on a hybrid basis comprising 39% male and 38% female respondents who chose this response. Another 11% said that they work fully from home (with 14% male and 8% female respondents expressing this view).

How do respondents feel about hybrid/remote working?

When we asked those respondents who are working remotely or in a hybrid set-up and have children at home how they feel towards hybrid/remote working, 44% of the female respondents said that it is somewhat hard balancing work and family life compared to 39% of male respondents. In addition, 35% of female respondents said that it is not hard to balance between private and work life at home while the proportion of male respondents who chose the same response is 33%. Moreover, 22% of female survey-takers said that it is very hard balancing work and family life while 28% of male survey-takers felt the same way.

Are boundaries between work and private life clear at home?

When we asked the same subset of respondents if they felt that the boundaries between work and private life were clear at home, 75% of the total respondents said that they could separate work and private life while working from home (77% male and 73% female respondents expressed this view), while 25% of overall respondents said that it's hard to separate work and private life while working from home (23% male respondents and 27% female respondents chose this response).

Is it hard to manage child-related and work duties?

When we asked those respondents who have children how difficult it is to balance child-related responsibilities with work responsibilities, 49% of respondents found it somewhat difficult (with 48% male respondents and 49% female respondents expressing this view) whereas 25% found it not very difficult (with 27% male and 23% female survey-takers expressing this view). Moreover, 15% said that they do not find it difficult at all, with 17% male and 13% female respondents expressing this view.

It is interesting to note that while only 8% of male respondents find it very difficult, the percentage of female respondents expressing the same view is 15%, indicating that compared to men, some women respondents find it very difficult to strike that balance between work and child-related responsibilities.

Which resources are given to respondents by their company?

We asked women respondents who have children if they received any of the following resources from their company, and the following answers were recorded:

How often do you excuse yourself from work to take care of your child?

In order to understand how working parents are able to take care of their children, we asked them how often they have to excuse themselves from work duties to take care of their child. 40% said ‘rarely’ (with 36% male and 43% female respondents choosing this response), followed by 30% who said ‘sometimes’ (with 26% men and 35% women respondents expressing this view).

What is interesting to note here is that out of the 6% who said they always have to excuse themselves from work duties to take care of their child/children, 9% male respondents and only 2% female respondents stated this opinion, among other options.

What degree of burnout are our respondents experiencing?

Is the UK workforce dealing with burnout at work? To gauge that, we asked them to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 the degree of burnout they are experiencing (i.e., chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed) and the following were the responses:

Are respondents comfortable advocating for mental health at work?

When we asked respondents to what extent they are comfortable advocating for their mental health at work, 31% said that they are mostly comfortable (33% males and 28% females expressed this view), 29% said that they are moderately comfortable (26% male and 32% female respondents chose this response), 17% stated that are extremely comfortable (22% male and 13% female survey-takers chose this option), and 17% said they were not very comfortable (with 15% males and 18% females expressing this view).

One thing to note here is that while 22% of males feel extremely comfortable advocating for their mental health, only 13% of female respondents stated that they feel such comfort. Moreover, while 5% of male survey-takers are not at all comfortable, the share of women respondents for the same is 9%.

Are employees encouraged to take mental health paid leaves?

Getting mental health support at work may be essential. When we asked respondents if their company encourages them to take mental health paid leave (i.e., paid leave to take care of your mental health), as many as 64% of the respondents replied with ‘No’ (with 58% male respondents and 70% female respondents choosing this option). On the contrary, 36% replied with ‘Yes’ (with 42% male and 30% female respondents expressing this view), stating that they are encouraged to take mental health paid leave.

How comfortable are people reporting harassment at work?

When we asked those respondents who said that their company has a process in place for employees to report harassment or make a complaint how comfortable they feel about reporting such harassment, 34% said that they are extremely comfortable. It is worthwhile to note that while 42% of male respondents said that they are extremely comfortable, the proportion of women choosing that same response was only 26%. Moreover, 33% said that they are mostly comfortable (with 34% male and 33% female respondents choosing this option), 18% are moderately comfortable (with 13% males and 22% females expressing this view), and 12% said that they are not very comfortable (9% males and 15% female respondents chose this response), among other responses.

Key highlights

• Even in times of hybrid and remote working, 50% of the surveyed UK workforce works solely on-site, out of which 47% male and 53% female respondents chose this response
• Out of those respondents who have children, 8% of the men respondents find it very difficult to manage child-related responsibilities with work responsibilities while the percentage of female respondents answering the same is 15
• Out of those respondents who said that their company has a process in place for employees to report harassment or make a complaint how comfortable they feel about reporting harassment, 34% said that they are extremely comfortable (with 42% of males and 26% females choosing this response)
• Out of those respondents who are working remotely or in a hybrid set-up and have children at home, 44% female respondents said that it is somewhat hard to balance private and work life at home, compared to 39% of males