Which Workers Are Most Likely to Bring Work Home?

bringing work home
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Have you ever brought work home from the office? Chances are that you have, especially if you work in certain industries.

The problem with bringing work home with you is that you also tend to bring the stress associated with it — and bringing stress home at the end of the day can have some pretty negative consequences, holding you back personally and professionally.

But not every industry is equally prone to encouraging workers to take work home. A SimplyHired survey of 1,014 employees identified the worst offenders.

1. Marketing and Advertising

Workers in the marketing and advertising field bring work home more than anyone else on the list. A whooping 86.7 percent of employees reported doing so. On average, they invest 6.3 hours a week on the work they do at home. Workload in this industry ebbs and flows, making it hard to commit to leaving work at the office during the busy season.

2. Education

People who work in education have been bringing work home with them for ages. Unlike some of the other industries that top this list, educators aren’t toiling after hours because new technology allows them to do so.

The reality of working in a school is that the days are super busy. When else are educators supposed to catch up on grading, planning, paperwork, or phone calls to parents? Educators spend an average of 6.6 hours each week working from home after hours. About three-quarters of educators (76.2 percent) say they bring work home.

3. Finance and Insurance

Those who work in the finance and insurance field, like the workers in the top slot, also tend to have workloads that ebb and flow. Seventy-five percent of workers in this industry say that they bring work home. They do an average of 6.3 hours a week.

4. Information Services and Data Processing

Workers in the field of information services and data processing bring home more work (seven hours, on average) than workers from any other industry on the top five list. (A significant majority, 74.5 percent, said they did so.) However, they weren’t the employees who spent the most time working from home. Those from the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry earned that distinction, clocking an average of 8.2 hours a week engaged with work they brought home.

5. Technology

A significant percentage of workers in the field of technology (73.6 percent) said that they bring work home. They reported investing an average of 5.7 hours a week on it. Workers in IT are notorious for putting in long hours. For many, the time they spend engaged extends beyond the office.

Workers reported bringing work home for a host of different reasons. The most common motivation, with 65.7 percent, was “to complete unfinished work.” The second most common reason, to “meet strict deadlines” helps to illuminate why these workers can’t wait until the next day to complete work that wasn’t finished the day before. The third most common reason given was to “meet employer expectations.” Today’s workers are under a lot of pressure.

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