75% of managers lack time!

Three out of four managers (75%) say they lack time when working face-to-face. At the forefront of the accused: the lack of manpower, an excessively heavy workload and disproportionate objectives in relation to the time available. But this feeling can also be explained by structural problems. “Organizations still too often operate in silos,” comments Jean-Claude Delgènes, founding president of Technologia. There is little sharing and lots of interruptions. This results in a huge waste of time and energy. Individuals juggle between the various projects to follow, with sometimes contradictory logics. This movement is disturbing and results in a feeling of permanent tension and a certain powerlessness to control the course of one’s professional existence.

At work, women and men are about equal in terms of time pressure. But, at home, it’s a different story: the pressure increases by 10 points for women, while it drops by 6 points for men! Unsurprisingly, women’s days do not end after work: there is, per day, a delta of around an hour and a half more domestic chores for a woman. Managers also feel this lack of time at home (83%, compared to 76% for non-managers). For our expert, “executives work in the evening, even at night, at least three times a week. The omnipotence of work cannibalizes intimate life”.

Another lesson from our survey: 40% of employees say they waste their time at work. A huge portion! “If we replace ‘time’ by ‘life’, we see that a large part of people have the feeling of losing their existence to their work. And this figure is even higher for young people aged 25-34 (51%), who certainly feel a strong sense of incompleteness. This point should raise questions for managers and the high governance of companies: clearly, a good part of the assets have aspirations other than that of fulfillment in their work”, summarizes Jean-Claude Delgènes. Only the 45-54 year olds believe in their majority (63%) not to waste their time at work. But this age group is often that of consecration in a trade or career, hence a stronger feeling of satisfaction and fulfilment.

Our survey shows that the loss of time at work is mainly linked to interruptions by colleagues and an excessive feeling of meetings, administrative tasks (27%), which take away from missions considered more essential to the heart of the job. “With the generalization of management by objective, the heaviness of controls has set in. Some companies organize reports every week, management runs after work in an insane ‘measurement disease’. These figures are often not even processed, but the pressure is there”, notes our expert.

Transport time is also strongly criticized (18%). The stress associated with home-work journeys is often underestimated by employers who prefer to believe that employees live on the doorstep of the company… However, the average transport time, in Ile-de-France for example, exceeds a hour and a half a day. It is tiring, even exhausting, which explains the appeal of telework. Finally, 13% of employees admit that they are unable to take an interest in what they do. This feeling can probably relate to repetitive work without added value. Another challenge for managers!

* Survey carried out on 1,002 people representative of the French national population, aged 18 and over. The survey was conducted online, on the YouGov France proprietary panel, from March 2 to 3, 2022.

For further

Take part in Management’s next “Live Coaching”, an online meeting with our experts to learn how to better manage your time, on Thursday May 12, live, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Take advantage of our introductory price of 29 euros for the solo pass, or book your company pass to participate in the development of your employees (professional invoice on request). If you are not available to attend the live, a replay will be available for two months.

>> Program and details of the offer to discover on our online ticket office

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