Late-sleeping Brits are causing the UK economy up to £619m in lost productivity, new research has found.
A survey conducted by hotel chain Travelodge found that half of the UK’s workforce will arrive late to work on any given day – 20%, or six million, of whom would have overslept.
Human resources managers are named as the fifth tardiest profession behind IT and internet workers, call centre staff, telecommunications staff, and secretaries and PAs.
The survey, questioning 1,500 people, found that the average Brit is around 10 minutes late for work per month, which equates to three weeks over a working lifetime.
Oversleeping ranks top of the genuine excuse pile, followed by not leaving enough time for travel, pressing snooze on the alarm clock, being disorganised, and missing the bus or train.
Some of the more creative excuses included UFO watching, a swan crossing the motorway, tripping over the dog, and being sick on a stranger at the station. A small number of respondents even confessed to keeping a little book of excuses.
Wayne Munnelly, director of sleep for Travelodge, said the tendency to oversleep demonstrated that the UK was in the grip of a sleep-deprivation epidemic.
“A shocking 28.1 million (97%) workers are getting less than the recommended eight hours of sleep every night of the working week and the subsequent inability to wake up is having a significant knock-on effect on the productivity of UK businesses,” he said.
