Are more people masturbating during working hours?

A header image introducing the article about workers masturbating during working hours

Are more people masturbating during working hours?

Our recent survey of 2,000 nationally representative general respondents aged 18+ has found that 14% of British people have masturbated during work hours, including over a fifth of men and 7% of women.


Working from home presents many benefits. From missing the morning commute to saving on fuel and travel costs as well as longer lie-ins.

Flexible working has become more of an expectation for workers, as opposed to a work perk, thanks in part to the global pandemic mixing up the remote work landscape.

But recent studies have shown that working from home might have given rise to additional perks, in the form of masturbating during working hours, according to a study of American workers [1].

Whilst we’re not condoning slacking off (in whichever way you choose to do so), we wanted to know if Brits really are pleasuring themselves during business hours and what the benefits of doing so on the clock might be.

To find out to what extent this is happening, we commissioned a survey of 2,000 Brits aged 18+ to find out who masturbates at work, the frequency and their reasons why.

Who masturbates during working hours?

Our survey of 2,000 nationally representative general respondents aged 18+ has found that 14% of British people have masturbated during work hours, including over a fifth of men and 7% of women.

When looking at this in relation to the current UK population figure, as many as 7.4 million workers could be pleasuring themselves during business hours!

A graphic showing how many people masturbate during working hours

18% of those surveyed said they use a private browser tab to access pornographic content during work hours, suggesting that they want to keep their workplace habits a secret because they know they probably shouldn’t be doing it!

When looking at city level data, Londoners admitted to masturbating on the clock the most at 16% - the highest of all cities.

Do high earners pleasure themselves more during work hours?

Our survey also recorded the salaries of respondents to find out if earnings influenced self-pleasure.

A chart showing if high earners masturbate more during working hours

Our survey found that the majority of those (31%) who admitted to this “me time” were within the £35,001 - £45,000 salary bracket - with the lower range sitting almost £10,000 higher than the national average, calculated at just under £25,300 [2].

This is followed by 24% who earn between £25,0001 - £35,000 and 18% who earn between £15,0001 - £25,000 a year.

Therefore, the survey found that it was the average to high earners who were pleasuring themselves the most at work.

Is age a factor in workplace masturbation?

Studies have found that men reach their so-called “sexual peak” in their teens and women in their thirties [3].

With this in mind, we analysed our survey to discover if it was the older or younger workers who admitted to playing with themselves the most.

A chart showing if age impacts how often workers masturbate during working hours

It was those aged between 25 - 34, the younger millennial demographic, that said they pleasure themselves at work most often, at 27%.

This was followed by those aged between 35 - 44, at 18% and the third highest age group, 45 - 54, Gen Xers, who admitted to “jerking off” during work time.

Does relationship status influence self-pleasure during working hours?

We wanted to find out if being coupled up or flying solo influenced the frequency and length of time that workers pleasured themselves.

A graphic showing statistics around relationships status influencing masturbation during working hours

There was no real trend that singletons masturbated more than monogamous survey respondents, with just 2% more singletons (16%) admitting to self-pleasure at work than married couples (14%).

However, when comparing the frequency, it was interesting to see that married folk actually masturbate more during work time on average than respondents who are single, with those who are coupled up managing to sneak in one more session than their single counterparts each week.

Married people also pleasure themselves for longer, with sessions going on for four minutes longer (38 minutes) on average than singletons (34 minutes).

How much time is lost to businesses because staff masturbate during work time?

According to the survey responses, the average number of times employees masturbated during working hours is on average 2.4 times per week with the average length of such sessions being 37 minutes.

If we calculate the frequency with the average session length, employees are clocking up an hour and a half each week to pleasure themselves instead of doing what they’re paid to do.

And if we calculate masturbation on a monthly basis, the timings equate to six hours of work time being used for non-work activities!

A graphic showing how much business time is lost because of employees masturbating during work hours

If we look at this on a national scale, 14% of the entire UK population could be masturbating for a total of 10,983,499 hours each week!

What are the top reasons why people masturbate during working hours?

The main reasons for self-pleasure during business hours were interesting, with the majority actually helping workers to perform better at their job.

Top reasons why employees masturbate during working hours

33% of survey respondents said they partake in this activity as it “helps me to relieve stress”. 24% said it “helps to enhance my mood” and 19% agreed with the statement “masturbating during work hours increases my concentration”, suggesting that self-pleasure during contracted hours could be influenced by feelings of tension brought on by stress in the workplace.

Can masturbation during working hours be a good thing?

Whilst getting paid to essentially ”jack off” is most likely frowned upon by many, it’s possible that there might be some benefits, hence why the boss of one company rolled out half an hour daily masturbation breaks after finding out employees had become agitated during lockdown. [4].

Senior Lecturer, Mark Sergeant, at Nottingham Trent University is quoted in Psychology Today suggesting that “a worker can be more effective and less stressed at work if they were given time to masturbate at work—it could replace the cigarette break.” [5].

Therefore, it could be recognised that the established physical benefits of masturbating are transferable to high tension environments like the workplace.

In our article about stress and sex, we discuss how sex is a great way to reduce stress, much in the same way that exercise works to combat stress and improve your mood. However, orgasms in particular have a few more benefits than a spin class.

Having an orgasm has many more benefits like regulating blood pressure, releasing muscle tension and helps to release the happy chemical, dopamine, which could be advantageous to get you re-energised for the working day.

So next time that you are feeling tense at your day job, perhaps wait until your lunch break when you’ll be able to fully “switch off” and take some time for self-care.

You can take time to explore your body, perhaps with the use of an adult sex toy or a vibrator, and take time to enjoy every sensation and properly relax.

References

  1. [1]https://nypost.com/2020/06/22/masturbating-on-the-clock-youre-definitely-not-alone-survey/
  2. [2]https://www.statista.com/statistics/1224824/median-monthly-pay-of-employees-uk/
  3. [4]https://metro.co.uk/2021/05/14/masturbation-month-boss-lets-staff-have-30-minute-masturbation-breaks-14584050/
  4. [5]https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/sexual-self/202106/the-truth-about-masturbating-work

Methodology

Chemist4U surveyed just over 2,000 UK general respondents aged 18+ (nationally representative by gender, age, relationship status, salary, region and working environment), asking if they masturbate during their working hours.

Chemist4U then analysed the responses of those who answered "yes", that they had masturbated during working hours, asking further survey questions, such as how often they masturbate during work time each week, the length of time these sessions go on for and additional statement questions such as how they access pornographic material on their browers, if self-pleasure is for stress relief and how masturbating during working hours makes them feel.

By working out a mean number for the average times a week they masturbate and for how long these sessions last, Chemist4U was able to attribute a nationally representative figure for how many people across the UK masturbate during working hours and how much time is lost to business on a UK scale.

Data has been rounded to the whole number where applicable.

Data

The full data set is available on request.

Chemist4U - Site News
James O'Loan - CEO & Superintendent Pharmacist
James O'Loan , CEO & Superintendent Pharmacist on 14 March 2023
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