Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 2, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
On the occasion of the launch of the new Sony Ericsson P1 smartphone, Sony Ericsson commissioned an international survey among the recipients of the Sony Ericsson newsletter on the subject of time, which was conducted by the independent consulting and market-research company Luon. Time is such an important subject for the respondents that they would also accept a salary cut if this gave them more time. 37 percent of German women would pay up to 25 euros per hour, 3 percent up to 50 euros, to buy an extra hour on every day of the week. 7 percent of men would even be prepared to pay up to 100 euros for an hour gained.
“The missing balance after work is becoming an ever greater burden for businesspeople,” says Gunter Thiel, Marketing Director of Sony Ericsson Germany. “People are becoming more and more stressed and are less and less able to switch off, which leads to great frustration and emotional imbalance The trend is clearly towards the attempt to create a balanced relationship between the job, which demands ever more time and energy, and private life.”
Across the board, employees are of the opinion that an unbalanced work-life balance impairs their private lives. Currently, 22 percent of the German study participants have only one hour or even less free time per day. A full 27 percent believe that they would have to extend the day by at least 2 hours to achieve their daily goals, while 17 percent would even need three hours. When asked what they would do if they had more time available, almost 50 percent of women would take time for themselves, and 46 percent of men would like to continue their education, acquire new knowledge and devote themselves to their hobbies. 42 percent of the respondents would like to do more sport and 24 percent use the time gained to take care of their personal “paperwork”. Only the workaholics – at just 5 percent – would fill the extra time with even more work. Over 30 percent of the respondents admit they would rather use their little remaining time for sleeping than spend it with their friends, partners or children.
53 percent of working people regard the possibility of also working outside the office with a mobile office as an essential prerequisite for reconciling work and private life and keeping time free for their private activities.
For Gunter Thiel of Sony Ericsson Germany, this survey clearly shows “how urgently it is necessary to adjust to consumers’ needs in order to help them have a little more time for themselves. Working from home, away from the office, is one possibility by always having your mobile office with you. Additional time is becoming ever more important, which is why Sony Ericsson offers itself the latest applications and technologies for its P1 smartphone, so that businesspeople, and not only they, gain more time.”
