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The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has been under fire for telling his Civil Servants not to put any non-urgent business in his red box after 3pm in the afternoon. He has in fact set a thoroughly good example to businesses up and down the country.
The culture of working excessive hours has been endemic in Britain for far too long. There is a huge danger of mistaking long working days for effective working days. Some time ago, when it was first mooted that Britain should adopt the European Working Time Directive, I made a film for the BBC comparing attitudes to work in different European countries. I was particularly struck by an industrial psychologist in Vienna who explained the differences in work philosophy between his country and mine. In Austria, he said, if somebody is still at their desk at seven in the evening, the boss asks them why they have been so inefficient that they have not finished their work at a reasonable time. In Britain, if somebody has left their desk by seven, there are many bosses who would ask why they are skiving off so early.
For the same film, I visited the BMW plant in Regensberg in Germany where they had simultaneously cut working hours and raised productivity. The staff there may have been on a four-day week, but when they were working, they applied themselves with huge energy and dedication. The assembly line moved at an impressively fast pace. I saw something similar when a French removal company moved my family from Paris to London in about half the time it had taken a British company to move us the other way. The difference was that the French did not stop for tea breaks or a smoke or a chat. They waited until they had finished to go off and have a relaxed long lunch.
Even more strikingly, there was a great disparity in the number of accidents which happened each side of the Channel during the building of the Channel Tunnel. Investigations into why so many more people were hurt on the British side concluded that most of the accidents happened when workers had been working for over fifty hours in a week. On the French side, there were not the same opportunities for overtime.
There are so many British companies where there is a habit of presenteeism. Because people are afraid to be seen leaving early, they spin their work out so as to be seen beavering away well into the evening. It is bad for the well-being both of themselves and of their companies.
It may well be that formal regulations like the forty-eight hour working week create unwanted paperwork and timetabling headaches for British organisations. There is everything to be said, however, for them voluntarily encouraging their workforces to work more sensible hours.
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David Walter, a former correspondent and programme presenter for the BBC and ITN, runs the media strategy company First Take. He offers writing courses, media, presentation and crisis training, PR advice, speechwriting and webcasting.
Tel: 07768 616568 |
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