88% of employees say they have a hard time juggling work and life

I recently finished reading “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss which I think is an extremely eye-opening read.  Some of the topics he writes about may seem far-fetched at first, but I think if you step back and analyze your current situation, you will agree with more than you disagree with in his book.  This book has made me look at life from a different angle, one in which I believe will change my life forever.  I have created a new category on this website named, Lifestyle, which will focus on various lifestyle facts, statistics and opinion, much of which I will extract and analyze from this and other books.  The stats below were extracted from his blog.  The purpose of these stats confirm that you are not alone if you: want to work less, think you are on the verge of a serious nervous breakdown, check email while on vacation, etc.

The goal is to become more productive.  Don’t simply shuffle papers just to make work for yourself to do, avoiding the inevitable.  If you have a lengthened deadline, don’t make a mountain out of a molehill just to beat a dead horse.

The Top 10 Stats to Know: You Are Not Alone

63% of all employees want to work less, up from 46% in 1992 [1].

26% of adult Americans report being on the verge of a serious nervous breakdown [2].

40% of workers describe their office environment as “most like a real-life survivor program [3].”

Only 14% of Americans take two weeks or more at a time for vacation [4]. The average American therefore spends more time in the bathroom than on vacation.

61% of Americans check email while on vacation [5].

53% of employees would opt for a personal assistant rather than personal trainer [6].

62% of workers routinely end the day with work-related neck pain, 44% report strained eyes, 38% complain of hand pain, and 34% report difficulty in sleeping due to work-related stress [7].

88% of employees say they have a hard time juggling work and life [8].

70% of working fathers and working mothers report they don’t have enough time for their children [9].

In 2005, a psychiatrist at King’s College in London administered IQ tests to three groups: the first did nothing but perform the IQ test, the second was distracted by e-mail and ringing phones, and the third was stoned on marijuana. Not surprisingly, the first group did better than the other two by an average of 10 points. The e-mailers, on the other hands, did worse than the stoners by an average of 6 points [10].

[1] “Feeling Overworked: When Work Becomes Too Much,” The Families and Work Institute, 2001

[2] American Psychologist, 2000

[3] USAToday.com, Jan. 1, 2004

[4] The Families and Work Institute

[5] eRoi Email Addiction Survey, Oct. 17, 2006

[6] Circles, 2001

[7] Integra Survey, 2000

[8] Aon Consulting, 2000

[9] Family Matters Survey; The National Partnership for Women & Families, 1998

[10] “Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” New York Magazine, Dec. 4, 2006