More vacation, less money: Half of working people want to work less

 

"The willingness of employees to forego part of their salary for less work is growing - despite many unfilled positions in companies. There are clear differences between the generations.

 

According to a survey, more than half of employees in Germany want to work less. Around a third are prepared to buy their way out of this. 34 percent of those surveyed would even be prepared to receive less money for more vacation days, according to a survey commissioned by the career network Xing.

 

Many employees are feeling the consequences of unfilled positions in their company: Over 40 percent of those surveyed said that their company had difficulty finding suitable staff, while 30 percent spoke of an increased workload and a bad atmosphere in the workplace.

 

The Institute for Employment Research has calculated that by 2035, the German labor market will have lost 7 million workers for demographic reasons. The state development bank KfW warned that due to the lack of workers, Germany is threatened with an era of stagnating, possibly even shrinking prosperity this decade.

 

However, six out of ten respondents rejected the idea of ​​working more to counteract these problems. While the older generations of "baby boomers" and "Gen X" each said (63 percent) that extra work was not necessary, "millennials" and "Gen Z" each thought it was somewhat more important (just over 50 percent).

 

Germany's weekly working hours are below the European average

 

However, with the right financial incentives, several respondents could imagine working extra hours: bonuses and premiums, a higher salary or additional vacation days would be suitable.

 

"These results show us that employees in Germany are less willing than ever to subordinate their private lives to their job, unless the conditions are right," says Xing Managing Director Thomas Kindler.

 

On average, the weekly working hours in Germany in 2023 were 34.4 hours, below the European average of 36.9 hours. Nevertheless, 49 percent of all generations want to reduce their working hours - at the top are "Gen Z" with 53 percent, closely followed by half of the "Millennials" and 48 percent of "Gen X". Of the "baby boomer" generation, who are approaching retirement, only 37 percent said they would reduce their working hours. Only nine percent of those surveyed would like to work more.

 

Men enjoy more work-life balance than women

 

Around half of employees said they were satisfied or even very satisfied with their own work-life balance. However, at 49 percent, women are less satisfied with the relationship between work and private life than men (55 percent).

 

According to the information, 3,500 employees between the ages of 18 and 65 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland were surveyed in a representative online survey by the market research institute Appinio at the beginning of July."