Female bosses are more tolerant of employees doing personal chores during work hours new research has shown.
Instead of berating colleagues for getting errands done in company time, women are more likely to appreciate the fact that staff have to maintain a work–life balance and only address the issue if employees are behind in their work.
Spotting that their staff are on Facebook, Twitter or shopping websites, or overhearing them making personal calls is more likely to make a male boss angry than a female one.
Female bosses are also more likely to take the personal situation of staff into account when it comes to managing and reprimanding their staff.
They were more likely to be aware of – and sympathetic to – problems that people may be having in their personal life. In contrast, male bosses were more inclined to tell employees off for letting home life get in the way of work, and admitted to having to do so on a daily basis.
The research in to the attitudes of 1,000 bosses was commissioned by Vodafone who wanted to look at the changing way that Brits work.
Most bosses agreed that the line between work and personal lives has become more blurred since staff started using smartphones and working from home. Seven out of ten said they think the 9-5 is slowly dying out and that flexible working is the way forward for the benefit of their company and for their staff.
Peter Kelly from Vodafone UK said: “What this research shows is that a cultural shift has started. For many people in the UK, the way we work is changing. Britain’s bosses are realising that successful businesses must focus on generating results, not on monitoring what employees do at their desks.”
“It confirms that we are seeing the end of the traditional 9-5 office working pattern. A new generation of workers is coming through the ranks. They prefer fitting work around their lives rather than the other way around.”
“People are comfortable working away from their desks and don’t mind doing some work in the evening or at the weekend. But in return, they expect bosses to cut them some slack so they can do a few personal chores, make a private phone call or check Facebook during traditional work time. ”
“Working smarter, not harder has become a bit of a cliché, but that’s exactly what’s needed, and the technology now exists to make this a reality. Therefore, finding ways to effectively harness technology to the benefit of businesses and employees should be high on the list of priorities for UK bosses.”
Women bosses were more understanding of the challenges staff had in getting a good balance between their work and personal life and were less likely to expect staff to work outside of working hours unless it was really necessary.
And as long as they were on top of their work most female bosses agreed that they didn’t mind staff booking personal appointments and they were more likely than their male counterparts to tolerate personal phone calls in work hours.
Men on the other hand were more likely to discipline employees for bringing their personal life into work, and the study showed they do this at least once a day compared to women bosses who only felt they needed to tell someone off once a week.
Although men were more tolerant about staff making the odd call to their mum than women, both sexes agreed that women talk more about their personal lives in the office and were more likely to blur the lines of friends and colleagues. Eight out of ten women bosses counted some staff as part of their friendship group.
Peter Kelly from Vodafone said: “Clearly Britain’s bosses are open to the ‘Generation Y’ ways of working. However, we have still got a long way to go for businesses to realise that this change in working culture and attitudes can actually benefit them. For instance, we’ve seen many of our own customers who are reducing their reliance on physical office space and saving costs because employees can now work effectively from just about anywhere.“
