All work and no play for Greeks
Eight in 10 Greeks believe that their working hours are too long and less than three in 10 feel that they have achieved the «perfect balance» between work and their personal lives, according to an international survey which was made public yesterday. Just over two-thirds of the 14,000 respondents in 24 countries said that they are not totally satisfied by the «work-life balance» they have achieved. In Greece, this figure reached 72 percent, which is among the highest in the poll. «Employers do not realize the risk that they face because of this disharmony,» said Anastassia Paraskevopoulou, the head of employee assistance programs at Hellas EAP, a firm which provides help to troubled workers. «This imbalance leads to more illnesses, more sick days and lower employee productivity,» Paraskevopoulou told Kathimerini. Greece is also one of the countries where 80 percent of respondents said that they spend too much of their time at work. Low wages and poor job satisfaction were among the other main reasons that Greeks said they were unhappy with their jobs, according to the poll which was conducted by the International Research Institutes (IRIS). More than two-thirds of Greeks questioned said that they had made an effort over the last two years to improve their quality of life. This is higher than the international average which was just over 50 percent. One in four Greeks said they tried to spend more time with their friends or family. The same proportion of respondents said they have refused to take on extra tasks at work. Almost 30 percent of Greeks said that the best way to improve their quality of life was to be better organized at work.
