Over one-third (37%) of respondents said the number one reason for this was that there were now fewer staff to do the daily chores and more than a quarter (27%) said taking over menial tasks was due to the need to cut costs. Others said they were helping in order to maintain staff morale.
These factors have led to all staff having to help out with chores, regardless of their seniority, according to the survey of 514 managers across seven European countries.
The most common duties that managers said they were now doing included filling the printer or photocopier with paper (24%), answering the telephones (24 per cent) and making tea and coffee for colleagues (17 per cent).
Other duties, which managers are now more commonly doing themselves include changing printer toner (12 per cent), placing stationery orders (7 per cent) and topping up the water cooler (6 per cent).
Despite these being relatively simple takes, the vast majority of those surveyed (84 per cent) said they didn’t feel any less valued having to take on such jobs.
"In the current economic climate, there seems to be a real sense of staff working together to help their organisations through these difficult times," said Steve Purdy, general manager at Lexmark UK. "Senior managers are increasingly getting involved in more of the day-to-day administration within their offices but few resent this. Many see it as a necessity to support their business in a bid to better control costs."
Another key way of achieving cost savings, especially in tough times, is to ensure that simple tasks are automated, thereby freeing up valuable time and resources for all workers to focus on their main responsibilities.
"While this approach may help maintain staff morale, it can be an ineffective and expensive use of management time, particularly when there are solutions and technologies out there that can reduce administration," Purdy added. "For example, our own SmartSolutions apps can’t answer the phone or fill up the water cooler but they can automate tasks such as printing off travel plans with TripIt or sharing documents with Scan to Fax."
