Despite almost two years of the Working Time directive, many professionals expect their working hours to increase over the next year, according to a survey.
A third of professionals in HR, accountancy and law expect the long hours culture to get worse. But if they going to work longer they want better rewards – with a quarter looking for a job with better pay and the figure rising to a third among HR professionals.
The legal profession expects to be hit hardest by longer hours with nearly four in 10 saying they are likely to be spending more hours in the office in 12 months’ time.
The on-line survey, carried out by business networking group Sift, found a quarter of HR professionals expect their hours to get worse, as do 37 per cent of accountants.
“The survey shows that in each sector the accounts, lawyers and HR professionals in our on-line communities regard the Working Time directive as a European ‘side-show’ and are ignoring it,” said Ben Heald, director of virtual communications at Sift Group.
“These people are conscious of their heavy workloads – a third of them are looking elsewhere for jobs that will compensate them better for the long hours.”
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There were 558 respondents to the survey.
