Nine to Five - Is a Thing of the Past - 22/08/2007
Founded by entrepreneurs Jim Venables and Andy Haywood in 2001, officebroker.com is the UK's leading online office broker and a multi-million pound enterprise.
The company is in a unique position as it has access to thousands of office workers and businesses across the country and recently asked some of these companies whether long hours and regular late-night unpaid overtime shifts were still a regular occurrence. The general consensus was "yes", and many admitted they had seen a rise in the number of people willing to stay late to keep up with their workload or cover for other staff.
One reason for the later working hours is the rise of the "I want it now" culture, which thrives in Britain's increasingly busy society. Often if a customer's goods and services aren't immediately available
at the touch of a button, they will go elsewhere so businesses will extend opening hours to fulfil this need. Perhaps this is also a knock-on effect of the customer having to work longer hours themselves.
Other reasons included an increasing number of people working late to impress the boss, making sure they arrive before and leave after their superiors.
Jim Venables, managing director of officebroker.com, added: "While there will always be times when each of us can expect to have to work late, say in a business crisis or start up situation for example, I believe that when people are working late on a regular basis, not only is there something wrong but also this is bad for business."
