JAPANESE salarymen famously never go on holiday for fear of losing their jobs, and it looks as if British bosses may be following their example. According to the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), 71 per cent of UK middle managers believe that holidays help them to “cope with workplace stress”, yet 93 per cent of them don’t use their full entitlement. Why? What’s not to like about two weeks lazing by the pool? Excuses range from heavy workloads to, er, enjoying work. Then there’s the barmy 5 per cent who fritter away their national right to sun, sand and sangria because of “poor personal planning”.
Today’s hard-pressed executive seems to prefer the lucre to teaching his children to make sandcastles. The CMI found that nine managers out of ten would like to trade holidays for other benefits, such as more pay or flexible working.
Employees, meanwhile, will stop at nothing for an extra few days partying in Torremolinos. One in twenty has paid his boss for extra days off, according to Direct Line travel insurance. Workers say that they were forced to go to such lengths because they work some of the longest hours in Europe with some of the lowest holiday allowances. This was also justification for the one dedicated worker in ten who admitted to taking sickies and the half a million team-players who felt entitled to pad out their official holiday allowance.
“Flexible working for all, even single people” was the cry from 90 per cent of office workers surveyed by Inter-Tel, a business communications provider. The call is for all employees, whether or not they have children, to have the same rights toflexible working arrangements. Yet 60 per cent fear that requests for flexible working by those without children could negatively impact on their career prospects.
Anyway, forget children, the crucial test of an employer’s flexibility is whether they will let you skip meetings and relax with a beer in front of the football. Kick-off for many World Cup matches is mid-afternoon, and even after England have lost to Germany on penalties we can indulge in Wimbledon and endless cricket. Or can we, when 46 per cent of us claim to be banned from watching sport at work by killjoy bosses, www.monster.co.uk reports. Said killjoys beg to differ — 26 per cent say they would even arrange viewing facilities in the office themselves.