Partner Article

UK Workers Want Their Christmas Back

Business has become ’The Grinch who stole the UK’s Christmas’

The festive season has been soured for many UK workers, who feel their employers are ruining Christmas. A new study reveals that the majority of UK professionals aren’t given time off at Christmas, despite believing businesses should shut down entirely.

The research comes from CV-Library, the UK’s largest job site, and was conducted amongst a cross-section of over 2,400 UK employees to uncover how they feel about Christmas in the workplace. Key findings revealed:

• 40% of UK businesses only close for the bare minimum of 2 bank holidays over Christmas
• However, 63.9% of workers think businesses should shut down for a longer period
• In addition, over a quarter of employees (26.1%) are not allowed to take time off at all over Christmas
• Meaning 38.9% of workers are forced to use their holiday allowance toward additional Christmas leave

Despite wanting more time off over the Christmas period, workers are understanding that not all businesses can shut down. When asked what should be done when a business cannot close for Christmas, 83.9% of respondents believe companies should make a bigger effort to embrace the Christmas spirit.

“It’s not realistic for every business to close their doors over the Christmas period but there are plenty of other ways businesses can offer a bit of festive cheer to their employees this year,” comments Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library. “Allow employees the freedom to decorate their working space, invest in a few advent calendars for each team or organise a Secret Santa amongst workers.”

Luckily for workers, 37.2% of UK businesses are already engaging its employees with ‘Secret Santa’ during Christmas. And 82.5% of professionals believe that it is a fun activity when everything goes smoothly; however they do admit to a few challenges posed by hosting an office Secret Santa:

1. People not wanting to take part is the biggest issue (29.8%)
2. People not liking the person they are buying for (17.3%)
3. People buying inappropriate gifts for the office (11.6%)
4. People spending over budget (9.2%)
5. People forgetting to bring gifts (7.2%)

“Adding some festive fun to the office is a great way to improve spirits and keep productivity levels up, especially if staff would rather be home with family than in the office. Just make sure no one is forced to participate and there are reasonable controls in place to keep things professional,” concludes Biggins.

Learn more about CV-Library at www.cv-library.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Michelle Smithson .