A new trend among young employees in western Germany

Young employees in particular want to work more than before. What motivates them most personally is their interest in increasing their own leisure consumption. For example, 59 per cent of 16 to 19-year-olds and 54 per cent of 20 to 29-year-olds are „willing to work more in order to be able to afford more in their free time“. This is the result of a representative trend analysis by the BAT Leisure Time Research Institute, which analysed the willingness to work more among 2,000 people aged 14 and over, comparing the years 1986, 1989 and 1993.

Irrespective of the current recession, the willingness of young employees to work longer hours in order to be able to afford more in their free time has risen continuously in recent years: in 1986, 45 per cent of 16 to 19-year-olds starting their careers were prepared to work longer hours. In 1989, the proportion of those in favour was already 50 percent and in July 1993 as many as 59 percent were in favour. A clear increase can also be seen among 20 to 29-year-olds in employment (1986: 42 % - 1993: 54%).

„With the growing focus on leisure time,“ says Prof. Dr Horst W. Opaschowski, Director of the BAT Institute, „young people in particular are coming to realise this: More leisure time is worth less and less without more money.“ The young generation, which has grown up in affluence, is placing ever higher demands on its own leisure consumption: sport, hobbies and holidays are dear to them, but also expensive. So if you want to consume more in your free time, you also have to be more productive at work. Opaschowski: „Earning money and spending money belong together, just like performance and enjoyment of life.“

Older generation: More individualisation and flexibility in working hours

The BAT study also shows that the importance of work, leisure and consumption changes over the course of a person's life. With increasing age, leisure consumption plays a much less important role as a motivating factor for working more: only just under two in five employees (39 %) aged 30 to 49 and only one in five employees over 50 (21 %) are motivated to work longer by more opportunities to consume. They are more likely to realise that more money alone seems worthless if more time is not „paid out“ at the same time. They would rather live with time options. For the older generation of employees in particular, the individual scope for more flexibility in daily, weekly or annual working hours should be extended. They want to achieve something throughout their lives, but with increasing age they want to work shorter rather than longer hours.

Technical data of the survey

Number of respondents: 2,000 people
Representation: West Germany, population aged 14 and over
Survey period: 10 to 21 July 1993
210 interviewers were deployed for the survey.