The image is enduring even if it’s outmoded and highly unrepresentative. The monochrome footage of men in dark suits, bowler hats and umbrellas walking to work in their hoards, has for many, been the very image of the British workforce for 50 years, but what are the characteristics of the modern British employee?
According to the Economic and Social Research Council, Britain currently has a workforce of approx. 28.5 million employees, of which 44% are women. Despite the sizable female workforce their pay level only reaches 82% of the amount paid to their male counterparts. This statistic represents one of the many issues that continue to dominate any discussion of British employment.
The largest industry sector in modern Britain is financial and business services, which currently accounts for one in five jobs. To place this in context, 20 years previous, one in three British jobs were in manufacturing, an almost exclusively male preserve.
Britain PLC is very much a tale of a nation that continues to operate, even if it still isn’t quite sure about the way in which it’s operating.
ALL WORK & NO PLAY
The British employee is still very much wedded to a most traditional model of employment. Despite much talk about increased flexibility within the UK economy, full time, permanent employment is the norm which applies to 92% of workers. This is a figure that has steadily risen from 88% in the last 6 years. It says much about the psyche of the British employee that in an era when the dominant discussion is of the more flexible nature of employment, the British are seemingly happy to reject this notion.
This attitude appears strange when you take into account the working culture in the UK. The British work longer hours and have shorter holidays than any other country in Western Europe. While 40 per cent of UK residents work more than 40 hours per week, only 10 per cent do so in Sweden. French workers get, on average 47 days holiday per year, while UK workers only get an average of 28 days. However, UK workers still work shorter hours and get longer holidays than workers in the USA and Japan.
The British may be working long hours, but curiously continue to reject the opportunity to take time off. Recent surveys estimate that only 44% of workers use up their full entitlement to annual leave. Reasons cited for not taking paid holiday often include a heavy workload or fear of upsetting the boss.
In spite of all this, the British are still are keen to engage in the full time, permanent model of employment which statistically offers them less flexibility, longer hours and lower reward.
LONG HOURS BUT STILL HAPPY
Because the majority of British workers prefer a permanent commitment (in name at least) to their employer, it would be easy to assume that this arrangement makes the British employee happy. Research suggests the opposite. Job satisfaction has decreased noticeably since the late 1980s, across all social classes and industries. This decline has been attributed to an increase in both the number of hours people were expected to work and in the amount of work they were expected to accomplish.
So, what is to be made of the British employee? A willing slave or someone who still perceives hard work as some how virtuous? It is easy to argue that neither are a clear reflection of the Britain’s complex relationship with work. It’s significant that while other European governments are aiming to reduce weekly working hours below the EU working-time directive limit of 48 hours. The British government is still desperately trying to keep the right to opt-out.
This is astonishing given that it’s universally accepted by economists that lower working hours relate directly to higher productivity, and the UK continues to have the least-regulated and least productive economy in the industrialised world.
The picture becomes more complicated if you take into account a recent study by the Work Foundation, a not- for-profit campaigning organisation. Will Hutton, who heads the foundation, says more than two thirds (69 per cent) of British workers described their work as a source of personal fulfilment. He says work was no longer seen as just a "grim economic necessity", but as an important aspect of life.
"The wage packet still matters, but there are crucially important psychological, social, and personal dividends from work - it is about money and meaning," he said. "Well over two-thirds of workers regard work as a source of personal fulfilment, but very few employers ever succeed in making the most of this huge personal appetite for work that more and more people have."
THE MANAGEMENT FACTOR
The British relationship and attitude towards work takes on an added significance when their peculiar relationship with management is taken into account.
The UK is an economy which is driven not by big business or large corporations but by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who employ 57% of all UK workers and contribute 54% of national turnover. Effective management of these SMEs provides certain management challenges, including the control of innovation, marketing and training needs, compared with larger enterprises that possess specific departments to deal with these functions.
There is an expectation on many British managers to be innovative, challenging and inspiring multi-faceted leaders. Unfortunately, it’s not quite working.
The British employee’s perception of the quality of their management is the second lowest in Europe. Only surpassed by the Italian’s traditionally acrimonious relationship with the concept of management.
So, even though the British employee thinks that their manager isn’t very good and that they are forced to work too many hours, they still persist in working on a full time, permanent basis in a seemingly unsatisfactory environment.
FANCY A DRINK?
In spite of all this, British employees are friendly, very friendly. The British see no need to separate their working life from their private life. Many are more than happy to merge the two. One of the strongest reasons that British employees often have such strong attachments to their employment is the workplace camaraderie and friendship they deem so important. According to Monster.com 4 out or 10 British workers wouldn’t leave a job for a higher paid one if they liked their current colleagues enough.
According to findings from totaljobs.com, more than half of Brits (55 per cent) have met their closest friends through work with 14 per cent meeting their best friend in the office and it’s not just friendship that employees are finding in the workplace. A staggering one in four have had either a long-term relationship or married a colleague whilst 44 per cent have dated a co-worker.