Hybrid working means people feel as if they are always at work

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

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

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 percent of those surveyed, followed by instant messaging such as Teams or Slack 34 percent, then the phone 31 percent, text messaging 18 percent, and video conferencing such as Zoom 16 percent.

Work communication choices appear to vary across the generations, as emailing is the preferred choice for 57 percent of both Baby Boomers and Gen X, while only 40 percent of Gen Z prefer this. In contrast, instant messaging was the top form of work communication for Gen Z, while only 31 percent of Gen X and 13 percent of Baby Boomers prefer this.

According to the poll, people from 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 percent of Gen Z admitted they feel less comfortable communicating for work than for personal reasons, compared with only 29 percent of Gen X and 17 percent of Baby Boomers who admitted this.

Despite their discomfort in communicating at work, 42 percent of Gen Z admitted they are less careful in communicating at work, while only 21 percent of Gen X and 6 percent of Baby Boomers admitted this.