When It Comes To Red Tape, Many Canadian Workers
Can't Cut It

Toronto, ON - A new Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of RBC finds that red tape and bureaucracy appears to be the biggest barrier which detracts Canadian workers from their ability to get the job done. In fact, four in ten (41%) indicate that red tape interferes with their jobs, which is up 15 points from the 26% in 1998 who indicated that they were burdened by red tape.

• Those who are employed in full-time work are much more likely (44%) than those in part-time work to say that they are burdened with red tape and bureaucracy (29%).
• Similarly, workers aged 45 to 65 are more likely (44%) than those aged 31 to 44 (42%) or 18-30 (35%) to say that red tape detracts from their ability to do their job.
• Men (45%) are more likely than women (36%) to be inhibited by the red tape in their job, as are those working in the public sector (44%) when compared to workers in the private sector (38%).

Perhaps not surprisingly, other things which tend to detract from workers' ability to get the job done are `not having enough time' (40%), `a lack of resources' (39%), `and unclear expectations (38%)'.

However, it appears that there has been a sharp increase in the incidence of those who report that office politics (36%, up from 19% in 1998) and gossip (31%, up from 18% in 1998) detract from their ability to do their jobs.

• Workers aged 45 to 65 are more likely (39%) than those aged 31 to 44 (37%) or aged 18 to 30 (31%) to say that office politics gets in the way. The same can be said about unionized employers (41%) when compared to non-unionized employees (34%), and junior (38%) and mid-level employees (37%) when compared to senior employees (31%).
• Workers who earn between $80,000 and $100,000 a year are much more likely (53%) to say that office politics gets in the way than those who earn in excess of $100,000 a year (45%), between $40,000 and $80,000 a year (38%), or less than $40,000 (31%).
• When it comes to gossip, unionized (35%) employees are more likely than non-unionized workers (29%) to say that it inhibits their ability to get their work done. Similarly, those who earn between $80,000 and $100,000 a year are more likely (34%) than those who earn less than $80,000 (30%) or more than $100,000 (28%) to believe that gossip detracts from their ability to get the job done.

Interestingly, it appears that there are generally more things today which serve to detract from Canadians' ability to do their work than there were ten years ago, with virtually all tracking data showing an increase over the data from 1998.

Further down the list of things that detract from one's ability to get the job done at work include not having enough independence to make decisions (28%), their boss or manager (24%, up from 15% in 1998), their computer and network systems (22%, up from 10%), a lack of privacy (21%, up from 12%), too many meetings (19%, up from 12%) and voice mail and email (17%, up from 10%).

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of RBC from Nov 5 to Nov 15, 2007. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 2052 adult Canadians employed in either full-time or part-time work was interviewed online. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult working population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure that the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Reid
Public Affairs
(416) 324-2002
[email protected]

About Ipsos Reid
Ipsos Reid is Canada's market intelligence leader, the country's leading provider of public opinion research, and research partner for loyalty and forecasting and modelling insights. With operations in eight cities, Ipsos Reid employs more than 600 research professionals and support staff in Canada. The company has the biggest network of telephone call centres in the country, as well as the largest pre-recruited household and online panels. Ipsos Reid's marketing research and public affairs practices offer the premier suite of research vehicles in Canada, all of which provide clients with actionable and relevant information. Staffed with seasoned research consultants with extensive industry-specific backgrounds, Ipsos Reid offers syndicated information or custom solutions across key sectors of the Canadian economy, including consumer packaged goods, financial services, automotive, retail, and technology & telecommunications. Ipsos Reid is an Ipsos company, a leading global survey-based market research group.

To learn more, please visit www.ipsos.ca.

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