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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/financialservices/0,3800010322,39168704,00.htm

Workaholic bankers take BlackBerrys, laptops on hols
When did you last have a proper weekend?

By Reuters

Published: Friday 05 October 2007

Financiers across the globe are putting in longer and longer hours in today's turbulent markets - and going on holiday without a laptop can be agony.

A survey into their high-pressure jobs from Tokyo and Hong Kong to London and New York showed what workaholics they can be, unable to relax unless they are in touch with the office.

Luxembourg clocked the longest working week, with an average of 47.6 hours, followed by Japan and Ireland.

Switzerland was bottom, with just 36.4 hours, in the survey conducted by specialist financial-recruitment company Robert Half International.

More than half of those surveyed - 52 per cent - said they had been putting in more time over the last two years.

The two most popular reasons for longer working hours were taking on more responsibility and their company growing.

So what are the chances of getting executives to relax on vacation?

Pretty slim, according to the survey. Clearly, they consider themselves indispensable and cannot believe that the office could possibly function without them.

Almost 40 per cent of the financial professionals questioned for the survey admitted that they took their laptop or BlackBerry on holiday.

But the Europeans were better at relaxing on vacation - an overwhelming majority of Irish and UK financiers firmly reached for the suntan oil rather than the laptop.

But 14 per cent of all those surveyed confessed that they were incapable of relaxing unless they stay in touch with the office.

Weekends and evenings at home rarely seem to pan out as pure quality time with the family.

The survey concluded: "As working hours increase, financial professionals around the globe find they are increasingly responding to emails and taking phone calls during the evening."

One in three around the globe regularly work in the evening. Twelve per cent admitted that they work every weekend.

The survey concluded that in today's shrinking world of increasing globalisation and improved technology, working '9 to 5' is just a distant memory. The 24-hour clock now rules supreme.

The survey said: "In many industries, financial employees must look beyond international time zones and work whenever they are needed to accommodate operating hours in foreign markets."

And its message to workers in a shrinking but ever demanding world: "Financial professionals need to learn to manage their time more efficiently."

Managers were urged to promote flexible working hours and encourage even the most compulsive workaholic to take a break. For it was vital to ensure that "the cost does not exceed the gain".