'All work and no play' in construction?

contractjournal.com Newsletter: 21.07.05

'All work and no play' in construction?

'All work and no play' seems to be the motto for managers in the construction sector. A new survey claims workaholic behaviour is rife because of pressure to perform, and that the long hours culture is saving £880 million per year for UK organisations.

Despite calls to end the UK's long-hours culture many managers in the construction sector refuse to stop working.

According to a survey by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) the majority of employers now actively encourage staff to take time off, but most employees admit to working during their annual leave and almost one-third fail to take their full holiday entitlement.

The CMI questioned almost 6,000 managers and found that the number of people with more than five weeks holiday entitlement continues to grow (from 56% in 2003 to 66% this year).

In the construction sector however, managers are fearful about the impact of their absence and more than half (67%) contact their organisation by choice due to work overload. A majority (69%) will also respond to requests from their employer, while on holiday.

The survey also shows that managers put in extra hours to make up for the time they lose by going on holiday. For a typical one-week break, the UK's management community works an additional 36 million additional hours, beyond their contractual requirements. This represents a cost saving to UK organisations of £880m.

Even when they finally go on holiday, managers in the construction sector find it difficult to relax. Over half (58%) regularly check their work emails and 56% monitor voicemail. In an effort to keep in touch with colleagues 75% take away their work mobile phones, 14% take their laptops and 19% regularly visit internet cafes.

The respondents from the construction sector were also asked why they work on holiday. The top three reasons were:

• Deadline drama: 39% claimed that the need to meet short-term project deadlines means they have had to work at some point during their holiday. Another 8% added that they lacked confidence in their colleagues' ability to manage during their absence.
• Client care: A third (33%) suggested that meeting customer needs overrides everything else and that letting clients down is never an option. One quarter (25%) also said they found it hard to 'let go'.
• Backlog blues: 17% worry about the amount of work they will face on their return. Nearly half (48%) expect to find 100 plus emails waiting for them and one in three managers admit to dreading returning to a backlog.

Jo Causon, CMI director of corporate marketing and public affairs, says: "It's long been accepted that the pressure to perform has led to Britain becoming a nation of workaholics."

However, the hours people put in at work do not always guarantee optimal results, because quantity is not the same as quality. "Employers are certainly beginning to recognise this and are encouraging staff to take a proper break, but the onus must now be on managers to follow this lead," she says.

The signs are that, for those managers in the construction sector who do take their full holiday entitlement, a break is as good as a rest. Some 89% say that their annual holiday "fully recharges their batteries" and 67% suggest it makes them question their work-life balance.

They also claim that the hardest part of going on holiday is returning to the regularity of alarm clocks (19%), being stuck indoors (8%) and commuting (6%).

In regional terms, the UK's workaholics are based in the North East, where 76% leave contact details with their employer and 24% contact their organisation at least twice a week, by choice.

The most relaxed Britons can be found in the North West, where less than half (45%) provide contact details and only 4% check in with their employers by choice.