KEY POINTS:
LONDON - A survey into high pressure jobs from Tokyo and Hong Kong to London and New York showed what workaholics they can be, unable to relax unless they are in touch with the office.
Financiers across the globe are putting in longer and longer hours in today's turbulent markets -- and going on holiday without a laptop can be agony.
Luxembourg clocked the longest working week with an average of 47.6 hours, followed by Japan and Ireland.
Switzerland was bottom with just 36.4 hours in the survey by specialist financial recruitment firm Robert Half.
More than half of those surveyed -- 52 per cent -- said they had been putting in more time over the last two years.
The two most popular reasons for longer working hours were taking on more responsibility and their company growing.
So what are the chances of getting executives to relax on holiday?
Pretty slim, argues the survey. Clearly they consider themselves indispensable and cannot believe the office could possibly function without them.
Almost 40 per cent of the financial professionals questioned for the survey admitted they took their laptop or blackberry on holiday.
But the Europeans were better at relaxing on vacation -- an overwhelming majority of British and Irish financiers firmly reached for the suntan oil rather than the laptop.
But 14 per cent of all those surveyed confessed they were incapable of relaxing unless they stay in touch with the office.
Weekends and evenings at home rarely seem to pan out as pure quality time with the family.
"As working hours increase, financial professionals around the globe find they are increasingly responding to emails and taking phone calls during the evening," the survey concluded.
One in three around the globe regularly work in the evening. Twelve per cent admitted they worked every weekend.
The survey concluded that in today's shrinking world of increasing globalization and improved technology that working "Nine to Five" was just a distant memory. The 24-hour clock now rules supreme.
"In many industries, financial employees must look beyond international time zones and work whenever they are needed to accommodate operating hours in foreign markets," the Robert Half survey concluded.
And its message to workers in a shrinking but ever demanding world: "Financial professionals need to learn to manage their time more efficiently."
Managers were urged to promote flexible working hours and encourage even the most compulsive workaholic to take a break. For it was vital to ensure that "the cost does not exceed the gain."
- REUTERS
