Even for employees in traditional 9-to-5 industry jobs, the 9-to-5 workday is fading.

A CareerBuilder survey of 1,000 workers in financial services, IT, sales and business services jobs found that nearly two-thirds of them say the 9-to-5 workday is fast becoming — or has already become — extinct.

These folks said their work hours are erratic and, at least for a quarter of them, include checking their email and other work messaging channels while spending time with family and friends.

No one's forcing them to do so, said 62% of respondents. They're doing so as a personal choice.

“Workers want more flexibility in their schedules, and with improvements in technology that enable employees to check in at any time, from anywhere, it makes sense to allow employees to work outside the traditional 9-to-5 schedule,” Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer for CareerBuilder, said in a release with the survey results. “Moving away from a 9-to-5 work week may not be possible for some companies (yet), but if done right, allowing employees more freedom and flexibility with their schedules can improve morale, boost productivity and increase retention rates.”

Other findings of the survey included:

Twenty percent said work is on their minds when they go to bed;
Forty-two percent said they wake up with work on the brain;
Twenty percent said thinking about work interrupts their down time.

More men than women work outside the 9-to-5 time slot (44% vs. 32%), check email outside those hours (59% vs. 42%) and check on work communications during friend and family activities (30% vs. 18%). However, more women (23%) than men (16%) say work is the last thing they think about before going (or trying to go) to sleep.

The breakdown by age offered some insights, some perhaps unexpected. For instance, far fewer younger workers work outside of 9-to-5 hours than older workers do, while the checking of work emails outside the office didn't vary nearly as much by age. Seven in 10 workers aged 55 or older said they choose to connect to work outside the 9-to-5 hours, compared to 56% of 18-to 24-year-olds. Younger workers were far more likely than their older peers to go to bed and get up with work as the last and first thing on their minds.

Instant Insights /

Is the 9-to-5 Workday Dead?

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