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SA’s top CEOs on duty 24/7 - poll

Cape Town - There is no downtime for South Africa's senior executives because they are expected to be available to the business around the clock, according to a survey.

The survey by Jack Hammer Executive Headhunters was conducted amongst the country’s leading employers.

It showed that CEOs have to be available even on their days off or outside of working hours.

Eighty percent of the companies said top execs are expected to be accessible after hours, while 60% of companies expected them to be available on weekends and public holidays.

Executives and senior management are expected to be accessible 24/7 to their employer, customers and clients, said managing director Debbie Goodman-Bhyat of Jack Hammer Executive Headhunters.

"Although all-round access was not explicitly required in any employment contracts or service agreements, it was implicitly expected by almost all of the organisations," said Goodman-Bhyat in a statement on Tuesday.

She said that this was mainly to deal with crisis situations.

All the companies also confirmed that they enabled after-hours accessibility by investing in technology.

"It is clear that work has irrevocably crossed the divide into what would previously have been considered personal time," Goodman-Bhyat said.

“In an era of constant access to work communications via mobile and other devices, the line between the work and the personal life is no longer clear".

She said the expectation to be ‘always on’ has become a norm that most executives have come to accept.

Some executives have figured out a way to integrate work into their personal and family lives so that it is not overly invasive, said Goodman-Bhyat.

She however added that many more struggle to find the balance and very few are able to completely switch off.

Goodman-Bhyat also said that there was no relation found between salaries and accessibility.

“There was no specific inference of the connection between being paid the ‘big bucks’ and expecting to be accessible at any time," she said.

"In fact, even at mid and senior level management, this expectation seems to exist.”

 - Fin24



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