Latest research from Marks Sattin shows that professionals in the accountancy and financial services sector would be prepared to give up £11,000 a year if they could work a four day week and have a better work/life balance.
The firm surveyed almost 3,000 finance professionals and discovered that two thirds of them would accept a salary cut of 20% in order to enjoy a three day weekend.
Marks Sattin’s MD, Dave Way, pointed out that now the economy is recovering, employers are under less pressure to make redundancies and employees are prioritising a better work-life balance. Employers should now be considering whether their employment terms have the flexibility to satisfy this demand.
Modern technology has fuelled this desire for a shorter working week as more and more employees find it difficult to escape from work. People with phones such as BlackBerries say they spend two and a half times longer checking emails than those without smart phones.
Smart phones enable online accountants to work remotely and this has increased users appetite for a longer weekend because of the amount of work they do outside normal office working hours.
However, the government probably wouldn’t be so keen on the idea of a four-day week. Marks Sattin also claims £24 million a day would be lost in income tax, costing the treasury £1.2 billion a year!
Meanwhile, workers in the UK take an average ten days unauthorised leave every year, twice as much as their counterparts in the US, according to a recent study from PwC. The firm has calculated that these unscheduled absences cost British businesses about £32bn every year.
Technology companies have the lowest rate of unauthorised absences at 7.6 days followed closely by banking and finance at 7.8 days.
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Image: Relaxing in Maldives by nattu
