A recently published report from the TUC led with the headline that UK workers are giving away £27 billion of unpaid overtime a figure that has increased significantly since they last checked in 2008. Part of the analysis suggests that this is partly due to the recessionary effects with workers accepting additional hours as part of the package that protects jobs.
This seemed like an ideal trigger to dip into the results from the 2009 Project Management Benchmark Survey to see if this change is also reflected in the results gathered so far from the UK’s Programme and Project Management community.
As can be seen in the figure below there is a significant spread across the four bands which we set for the survey. If we were to take the “typical” contracted working week to be between 35 to 40 hours we can see that 39% of our respondents fit into this grouping. With 40% working between 40 to 48 hours per week and 17% working over 48 hours per week.
When this baseline is compared with the data collected 12 months ago we can see the following changes;
Over “All” the respondents the numbers of people working longer hours has increased by 3.5% with an almost equal decrease in the number working between 35 to 40 hours. This would suggest that in line with the bigger picture painted by the TUC that the PPM community are also seeing an increase in core working hours.
When the data is viewed across the Public / Private sector divide there are quite significant changes with just 35% of those working in the Private sector working less than 40 hours (down 5.3%) compared to 52% in the Public Sector (down 1.3%). In the upper limits there has been a significant increase (5%) of the number of Public sector workers working more than 48 hours though this figure at 15% is still lower than the 19% in the Private sector.
When the working hours data is cut by role as can be seen below a very clear picture emerges regarding the hours worked against seniority.
The data received so far suggests that a whopping 74% of Programme managers work more than 40 hours per week out of which 40% put in more than 48 hours. This figure is up by 10.3% from the data collected 12 months ago. Over the twelve month period the Project and Change Manager spreads have shown a slight increase in hours worked. The support group however have seen two interesting moves which indicate additional pressure; firstly an increase in the numbers working < 35 hours by 2% suggesting additional part time roles whilst a 12% increase has been reported in those working more than 40 hours.
So it would appear that we do have an increase in overall hours worked by the UK’s PPM community; but what impact is this having on the perceived “work life balance”?
Looking back to the results of the 2007 survey the PPM community reported that 23.5% were unhappy with their work life balance with many stating long hours as the primary cause of this imbalance. Looking at the data collected so far in the 2009 survey this figure has increased by a further 4% to indicate that 27.5% are now unhappy about their work life balance. When viewed against the hours worked a very clear picture is shown correlating longer hours with this dissatisfaction as can be seen below
45% of our respondents who are working >48 Hours per week say they have an unacceptable work life balance compared to 15% of their peers who work between 35 to 40 hours per week!
So back to my original question; Does PPM have a long hour’s culture?
From the data collected in this and previous years by Arras People for the Project Management Benchmark reports my assumption would tend to go towards the YES camp, though of course there are many other factors that come into play such as;
- Culture of the work environment
- Excessive quantity of reports, memos and e-mails to read and answer
- Frequent travel
- Ineffective time management or performance
- Lack of resources
- Organisational and management pressures causing unrealistic expectations
- Reluctance of managers to deal with the issue
- Training or professional development needs not addressed
- Unrealistic timescales
If 20% of any group feel the need to work >48 hours per week it would suggest that there are some ingrained issues that need to be addressed whether by the individuals concerned or the organisations that they work for. It can be seen from the data that long hours correlate to people having concerns about their work life balance and in turn this can lead to stress be it physical, psychological or behavioural. Whilst in the short term it may be a “needs must” situation it is surely not a sustainable long term solution. In PPM roles we cannot eliminate pressure but surely we have the nous to control excessive hours?
The Arras People 2010 Project Management Benchmark Survey is still open for UK based PPM practitioners to have their say. The online survey takes between 4 to 8 minutes to complete and will provide the data from which the Arras People Project Management Benchmark Report 2010 will be compiled. Those who complete this confidential survey can request their FREE copy of the report which will be published in early February 2010.
Any comments to add?
Peter
Thanks for the comments and link on your article;
http://imaginist35.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/the-world-is-getting-worse-for-programme-managers/
Twitter: PM_StrayDogg
That £27 billion figure is astounding!
Interesting post. None of these stats cause me any surprise at all! My own experience would suggest that probably the 3 biggest pain points are the complex reporting/documentation/email chains, an unrealistic management team who tell you to shave 20% off your original plan and, probably most importantly, poor communications.
I believe that project management has become overly complex with too much time looking in on itself rather than focussing on the end game i.e. delivering the project to the 3 basics of time, quality and budget!