More than 500,000 business leaders are expected to forego traditional festivities to spend Christmas day in the office, research has shown.
A study by Clydesdale Bank has found that roughly one in 10 businessmen and women are likely to miss Christmas with their families due to work commitments.
Businesspeople in the East Midlands were most likely to pass up on a family Christmas, with almost a quarter prepared or expecting to work, while those in Yorkshire were the most likely to put their families first.
“If there was one day in the year that you’d expect most people to put work to one side, it would surely be Christmas Day, but these findings are testament to the fact that Brits just don’t know when to say stop when it comes to work,” said Mike Williams, Clydesdale Bank’s business banking general manager.
“It is acknowledged that the UK has a culture of working longer hours than virtually all of its European counterparts, but nonetheless it’s astounding that so many business people still appear to miss what is traditionally one of the most important family holidays of the year,” he added.
The research showed that Christmas is not the only holiday that overworked businesspeople are sacrificing. More than one in five respondents said they had missed their child’s birthday in the last year.
Williams commented: “These findings would indicate that our tag as the workaholics of Europe seems well-founded. And although there are some who may wear this as a badge of honour, clearly when it gets to the stage of missing family holidays and children’s birthday’s we have to consider that we’ve simply gone a step too far.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007