smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

The traditional ‘9 to 5’ working day will be a forgotten relic of the past by 2016, says new research that reveals how office workers think their working lives will change over the next ten years.

The survey of more than five hundred office workers across the UK, conducted by printing solutions provider Lexmark, reveals two-thirds (65 per cent) believe the rigid ‘9 to 5’ working day will become an outdated concept in just ten years time. Despite this, most do currently stick to these hours, spending an average of eight hours and 18 minutes in the office each day.

However, a shift away from the strict ‘9 to 5’ ethos is already starting to show, with British professionals now working on average 1 hour 7 minutes per day at home, on top of a full working day and many small business owners working even longer hours.

This trend seems to be due to new technologies, with one in five (20 per cent) office workers claiming they now work more productively at home than in the office.

A large number (40 per cent) of office workers believe the conventional office as we know it will be replaced by a completely mobile workforce equipped with the tools to work anywhere, anytime. Nearly a third (29 per cent) of office workers think the suit and tie will remain the working uniform.

‘The working day is undergoing massive change as we become more productive,’ says Matthew Yarrow, a director at Lexmark. ‘New technology means we can work wherever and whenever we please. For some of us this means adding more hours to the working day when we get home, whilst for others it means greater flexibility between the standard working hours of 9 to 5.

Click here to read about balancing you work and your home life.

There are currently no comments on this article