A CareerBuilder.com survey has revealed that 30% of employers feel their workforce is more productive now than it was in 2007. Managers attribute the increase to the fear of losing a job and the effect of downsized staffs on individual workloads. The May/June 2011 study polled over 2,600 hiring managers and nearly 5,300 workers across several industries.
“The recession produced consequences for not just those who were laid off, but also for the many employees who were asked to work harder as a result of leaner staffs,” says Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America. “While getting more out of a smaller workforce is a sign of organizational agility during unpredictable times, it’s hard to see such yield in productivity holding forever.”
Seventy-three percent of managing respondents claiming higher productivity are seeing that level sustain into 2011, and 14% report an increased level of production. On the flip side, 26% think workers are less productive now, but the primary reasons cited for the drop off include summer weather, vacation fever and out-of-school kids.
Rasmussen’s sentiment is reflected in the workers’ responses. A whopping 77% of workers report feeling sometimes or always burned out while on the job. And 43% reported a higher level of work-related stress over the past six months.
The burnout reported in the study can manifest in three ways, according to Jesus Montero-Marin, senior researcher at the Aragon Institute of Health Sciences in Spain. Three profiles emerged from a University of Zaragoza study, which revealed that chronic work stress and a perceived lack of recognition contribute to worker burnout. Worker burnout, he writes, can appear as frantic, unchallenged and worn psychological profiles.
“The (frantic) profile is associated with the number of hours at work,” says Montero-Marin. He adds that management staff and services personnel can be prone to boredom because of routine tasks and a lack of professional development, thus leading to an unchallenged profile. And the worn profile is exhibited by those who have a long history with a company, with a feeling of not being recognized.
On the bright side, a worker’s social environment can act as a counterbalance to burnout. “Having a family, partner or children can act as a protective cushion, because when people finish their day at work, they leave their workplace worries behind them and focus on other kinds of tasks,” Montero-Marin says.
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I think people who work in any Human Resources Department are lazy. Furthermore, I believe that a big part of America’s economy fail due to people not being able to find jobs starts at Human Resources. Here is how: Let us say I apply online, which most jobs require now, and my application is received by a computer generated system which is overlooked by people who work in Human Resources. Those computers or people go through the application and resume if submitted and highlight certain key words or phrases and that’s how applications are determined if they are worthy enough for interview material. Now, here’s my problem with this. Those Human Resources people may not know jack squat about someone’s work history. There might be some real relevant experience shown in the resume but is overlooked because the computer or Human Resources individual is not familiar with a certain area of prior work experience. So, that application is going to be kicked aside and a generated email will be sent out to inform you that your application will be kept on file. Now how is possible that someone has 8 years of experience in the exact same career field that they are applying for and receive an email saying that they did not meet the qualifications. Well, this is a problem. There are thousands upon thousands of people with substantial work experience that are being denied everyday due to this FACT. If people are so blind to see this, then there is a much bigger problem in America than what we thought. People, yes may be lazy and not want to work, but for the ones who try the Human Resources Department is hurting the job hunting for Americans. What ever happened to walk-in-applying? What happened to managers actually interviewing everyone for a fair chance to get the job? What Happened To Equality?