90 Work Life Balance Statistics, Facts, and Quotes

All of us know how important it is to work and make money. However, the want for success pushes people to spend much more time in their office. The long commute and the overtime contributes to the lengthy hours.

Several studies have shown that overworking has had a major impact on both the physical and mental health of the workers. If employees don’t have a healthy work-life balance, then their productivity will decrease massively. Not only that, but their personal lives will be affected as well and they shall make the business lose money.

Here are some work-life balance statistics that will show you that spending some time away from your work, both mentally and physically, is important for leading a healthy life. Everybody can benefit from a better work-life balance, and given below are some stats, facts, and quotes to prove the same.

Present State of Work Life Balance

1. Time management statistics confirm that 66% of American workers don’t have work-life balance. (Small Biz Trends, BLC, CNBC)
2. 83% of US workers suffer from workplace-related stress
3. 60% of employees put the blame for work-life imbalance on their bosses
4. Salaried employees execute 26% of their work outside the working hours
5. Most of the service professionals spend more than 50 hours at work every week. (Rescue Time)
6. 40% of employees have been reported to use their devices for work even outside the business hours. (Rescue Time)
7. 84.7% of all American workers get around 10 days of paid vacation on an average and 52% don’t even use it. (CNBC)
8. 63% of employees have rated their supervisors as moderately low when it comes to family support (Harvard Business Review)
9. 72% of Americans are well-aware of the importance of work-life balance while looking for jobs. (Statista)
10. 40% of millennials identify themselves as “Work martyrs” who have a bad work-life balance statistics in the US (Forbes)
11. 16% millennials fight their burnout with Netflix as per the work-life balance statistics (Thrive Global, INC, Workplace Insight)
12. 19% of employees have quit their jobs due to heavy pressure and stress
13. 14% of employees have felt like hitting a coworker but they didn’t
14. 2% of employees have actually hit someone at work.
15. 18% of employees have faced verbal assault at work at some point or another.
16. 10% of employees have said that they work at an office where physical violence has occurred due to job stress.
17. 10% of employees have raised concerns that a colleague might become violent.
18. 44% of employees report to have stressed-out eyes.
19. Work-related stress can lead to 120,000 deaths and costs $190 billion in healthcare every year.
20. 39% of workers have stated that a heavy workload was their major cause of stress in 2017. Interpersonal issues was the second (31%), and then came balancing work and personal life (19%) and lastly, job security (6%).

Importance of Work-Life Balance

21. Americans are very hard-working and spend only less than 12 hours per week on leisure and their personal care. (OECD)
22. An imbalance in personal and professional life results in poor employee morale by 68%, decreased productivity by 36%, and a turnover of 41%. (Small Business Trends)
23. If the employees spend more than 55 hours every week at work, then they are more likely to develop anxiety and depression. (Small Business Trends)
24. 26% of employees experience a burnout at workplace
25. 42% of employees have said that their colleagues require help with stress management
26. 75% of employees are of the opinion that they are more stressed with their jobs as compared to the previous generation
27. 77% of full-time employees have experienced a professional burnout at their present jobs (Deloitte, Business Insider)
28. 25% of female employees are required to return back to work within 2 weeks of giving birth (Healthline, Aljazaara)
29. People who work for 55 hours or more every week have 1.3 times higher chance of suffering from a stroke than the ones who work standard hours. (Medical News Today)
30. 1 in every 3 American adults is sleep deprived due to disrupted work-life balance, as per statistics (Gallup)
31. 25% of employees have been in tears due to the stress they face at the workplace.
32. Employees who work for more than 55 hours every week are more likely to develop sleep problems.
33. A quarter of Gen Z employees are unhappy with their work-life balance and 18% millenials feel the same way. So, young generations are more likely to experience burnouts (Commercial Café)
34. Multitasking causes a disruption in work-life balance and leads to stress at the workplace. Employees spend 40.1% of their day multitasking. (Forbes)
35. Around 190 billion dollars is spent every year to address the psychological and physical effects of a burnout (Harvard Business Review)
36. 80% of baby boomers have reported that they are stressed. (Huffington Post)
37. 62% of employees have felt neck pain at the end of a day because of stress.
38. Over 50% of employees have reported they often skip lunch due to extra work pressure.
39. Due to several physical issues that arose from job stress, 12% people had called in sick and missed their work.
40. 12% employees have complained that their hands hurt due to the workload.
41. 27% of workers are depressed due to their hefty workload.
42. 54% of workers have said that workplace stress negatively impacts their home life. (Wrike)

Benefits of Work-Life Balance

43. Work-life balance works as a unique selling point for almost 47% of the job seekers
44. 60% of employees reported that increased productivity at work allows them to have a richer social and family life and more time to engage in hobbies. But, 35% said that they would love having regular physical activity but they don’t have the time.
45. 90% of workers with flexible work arrangements report that their overall morale has improved.
46. 33% of employees who enjoy the benefits of work-life balance are much likely stay in their present companies
47. 21% of workers with good work life balance usually tend to work harder
48. Happy employees are much less likely to be absent and that saves businesses around $2,600 per employee
49. Organizations with employees that benefit from a good work-life balance report that their healthcare expenditure is 50% lesser
50. Work life balance programs might lead to a 13% increase in performance (Stanford University)
51. Mostly, 85% of businesses that offer work-life balance opportunities have said that they are much more productive.

How To Achieve Work-Life Balance?

52. Physical exercise is a great way to deal with workplace stress.
53. 79% of employees are of the opinion that flexibility in job improves work-life balance. (Flex jobs)
54. Companies that support and promote work-life balance have 2x times more productivity than those that don’t. (Deloitte)
55. 71% of remote workers have said that remote working gives them more job-satisfaction as compared to 55% of on-site employees.
56. 3/4^th workers have reported that their work-life balance improved once they started working remotely.
57. 40% of employees who work from home have said that they are usually not stressed out during a typical workday.
58. Around 82% of American companies use flexible work locations already to enhance the work-life balance of the employees.
59. As per the Future of Work, 78% employees have considered flexible schedules as an efficient non-monetary way to improve employee retention.
60. 6 in 10 employees would consider leaving their current job positions if they lost the flexibility of being able to choose the time and place of work.

Other Important Stats About Work-Life Balance

61. Corporate recruiters, with a score of 4.1, are great at balancing work and life
62. 40% of employees have been reported to use their devices for work even outside the business hours. (Rescue Time)
63. 35.5% of workers have acknowledged that they check their mails every 3 minutes. (Rescue Time)
64. An average American uses only 10.2 days off of work. The US has one of the worst vacation scores worldwide. (CNBC, Aljazeera, ILO)
65. Oslo, Sydney, and Melbourne offer the best work-life balance as per stats. (Aljazeera)
66. San Diego, San Francisco, and Portland have the best scores for work-life balance as per 2019 statistics.
67. Managers are 27% more likely to experience workplace stress and burnout as compared to others (Small Biz Trends)
68. 75% of business executives work during their paid off time as per the worldwide management-related work-life balance statistics. (Accenture)
69. Only 23% of companies have said that they promote work-life balance. (Deloitte). 
70. The number of professionals working remotely has increased by around 44%.
71. Just 43% of US employees are of the opinion that their employers care about their work-life balance.
72. 35% of employees have said that their main source of stress at the workplace was their boss. (Korn Ferry)
73. 76% of US workers reported that workplace stress affects their personal relationships. (Korn Ferry, 2018)
74. 51% of US workers are mentally disengaged at the workplace due to stress.
75. 63% people think that work is one of the top 3 causes of stress in America.

Quotes About Work-Life Balance

76. “You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.” (Zig Ziglar)
77. “We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” (Arianna Huffington)
78. “We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.” (Michelle Obama)
79. “Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” (Dolly Parton)
80. “No one on his deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office.”
81. “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” (Sydney J. Harris)
82. “Children learn to smile from their parents.” (Shinichi Suzuki)
83. “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” (Michael Altshuler)
84. “Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.” (Art Buchwald)
85. “Don’t confuse having a career with having a life.” (Hillary Clinton)
86. “When you’re gone, would you rather have your gravestone say, ‘He never missed a meeting’? Or one that said, ‘He was a great father’.” (Steve Blank)
87. “Take care of yourself: When you don’t sleep, eat crap, don’t exercise, and are living off adrenaline for too long, your performance suffers. Your decisions suffer. Your company suffers.” (Ev Williams)
88. “You will never feel truly satisfied by work until you are satisfied by life.” (Heather Schuck)
89. “Balance is not better time management, but better boundary management. Balance means making choices and enjoying those choices.” (Betsy Jacobson)
90. “Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.” (Thomas Edison)

Bottom Line

There was a time when people equated long hours of work with better productivity and revenue. But, now, intense workloads lead to decline in productivity along with the output quality. Employees are far healthier if they have flexible work arrangements. That would allow them to rest adequately and spend much more time with families.

When workers are happy, their performance improves, even if they work for just a couple of hours. This leads to garnering better revenue for their organizations because they can maintain high-quality performance and output.

Moreover, better work-life balance saves money on healthcare, improves mortality, and reduces the rates of depression and anxiety. All the work-life balance statistics stated above will allow you to make a healthier change and stay put together in times of distress.