`60 per cent of Brits want work emails banned whilst on holiday’

New research from LondonOffices.com, the well-established serviced office broker and office expert, has suggested that when it comes to finding the perfect job, factors such as passion, location, opportunities for development and work-life balance are more important than cold hard cash. The average Brit will spend around 81,000 hours, or the equivalent of a full nine years of their lives at work, so it’s important to be commuting to a workplace that ticks all the boxes.

Whether you’re just kick-starting your career or you’re hoping to move on up the career ladder, making sure you have passion for your new role is vital, and weighing up your potential employer’s company culture is essential in figuring out if you’d be a good fit for the role. Of course, each of the points will rank differently for each individual. Job title might not drive you as title won’t often reflect the exact nature of your role and day-to-day responsibilities, but it can be used as a good indicator of your experience, particularly when applying for new roles. It’s also vital to take a look around your workplace before signing on the dotted line. Full time workers will spend nearly 25 per cent of their time in the office each week so it’s important to make sure you’re in an environment that you love and can produce your best work in. In no particular order, here are the top ten most important things to look for in a new job to ensure happiness and fulfilment in your professional life:

 

Passion

Being passionate about your job will help you feel fulfilled and make it easier to get up and go to work each and every day. Make sure that your role is meaningful to you and that the company inspires you to do your very best. This will come naturally if you identify with the company’s mission statement and the work they do day in, day out.

 

Location

Commuting can add many hours and lots of stress to the workday, which is something a lot of people can’t bear the thought of. Yet for some workplaces, a hefty commute is unavoidable, so it’s definitely one of the most important things to check and consider when scouring for a new role.

 

Workplace

If you can, take a look around the company’s workplace to see if it’s a good fit for you. Is it a pleasant, well-lit, comfortable place to work? Do you get good vibes from having a walk round? Go with your gut instinct — after all, this is the place you’ll be spending a large portion of your time!

 

`56 per cent of us are addicted to checking work communications’

Work-life balance

Maintaining work-life balance is not only important for your personal health, wellbeing and relationships but it can also improve the efficiency of your work performance. In today’s fast-paced, ever-changing business world, the ability to achieve work-life balance is increasingly difficult, so it is more important than ever for people to find a job that respects and encourages the balance.

 

Job title

Taking salaries out of the equation, most people aren’t happy to take a lower level job than what they’ve had previously, and job title for some is everything. Whether you crave the status ‘manager’ or ‘supervisor’ titles carry, or if you’re simply climbing your way up the career ladder, your official job title is certainly something to take into account.

 

Company culture

This can be hard to figure out before you actually start working somewhere, but there are a few questions you should be asking yourself to help decide whether the company’s culture is a good fit for you. Would you prefer working in a small or a large company? Is the working environment relaxed or formal? Does the management team inspire you? What’s the dress code like? Are the people welcoming and friendly?

 

Business opportunities

Look for a company that invests in the growth of its people and provides opportunities to develop skills which will help you progress to a more senior role, to start your own company, or whatever your long-time goal might be. Make sure you’re clear on what the company can offer in terms of professional development if you know that you’d eventually like to progress.

 

Recognition

Whether you have your eye on a hefty bonus or you’re simply content in receiving verbal appraise, it’s nice for our hard work to be recognised and rewarded. For this reason, weighing up a company’s appraisal format is essential.

 

Colleagues

Full-time workers will spend a big chunk of their waking lives at work, so it’s vital to ensure that the people you’re working with are the right fit for you. Having a good support network at work will help to motivate you each day, and as human beings are naturally social creatures, work friendships and positive interactions will increased happiness and productivity both inside and outside the office.

 

Salary

Unless you have a private income or somebody else finances your lifestyle, the salary from your job will pay for your home, food, and everything else.  As such, it’s vital to ensure that your job salary meets the minimum expectations for your job role and title, caters to your basic needs, and can sustain your lifestyle.

 

Digital overload

One of the reasons that it is so hard to maintain that crucial work/life balance is because Britain’s workforce seems to be drowning under a digital overload. That’s according to a new study by villa holidays specialist www.OliversTravels.com. It shows the vast majority of the UK’s workforce has a work life balance that is in essence, broken. With digital obesity being a health concern to many, Oliver’s Travels polled over 1,400 office workers from across the UK to ask a series of questions about their ability to switch off from work whilst on holiday. It seems the prospect of going on holiday and actually having a digital detox is something people are attempting to get right, with 50 per cent of workers saying they actively try and switch off.

However, given 56 per cent of respondents admit to being addicted to checking social media or emails in general, it comes as no surprise that over 45 per cent of respondents admitted to checking work related communications on holiday with 20 per cent saying they check multiple times a day. 37 per cent of workers can’t even go a single day without logging on. 29 per cent said they could last at least 48 hours without checking but only 11 per cent said they could manage a whole holiday without getting sucked in.

Overuse of digital devices is increasingly being blamed for everything from burnout to sleepless-ness as well as relationship problems, with many employees uncertain of when they should actually switch off.  The rise in flexible working arrangements has created an apparent ‘always-on’ work culture.  This study shows British workers need protections put in place like the French and Germans have already started doing to ensure workers are able to properly enjoy their time off and return to work fully refreshed.  British workers seem to justify their daily checking of work communications on holiday with 25 per cent saying that up to 10 minutes and 19 per cent saying between 20 minutes and 1 hour is the optimal time to spend daily to get the right mix of ‘keeping on top of work’ with relaxation. When asked whether employers should cut off workers access to work communications such as email, a whopping 60 per cent of respondents said yes, but 25 per cent responded saying it would be impractical to do so.

Employees often feel they are judged on their commitment to their companies and their availability to work yet the workplace is changing as rapidly as technology, with more and more employees working remotely or with colleagues in other time zones. Some of the challenges that come with flexibility are managing those boundaries between work and life and being able to say no, I am not working now and I’m simply not available.

Survey findings

• 50 per cent of us try to switch off on holiday
• 56 per cent of us are addicted to ‘ checking work communications
• 37 per cent of us cannot even manage one single day without checking work communications on holiday
• 60 per cent of us want employers to cut off work communications whilst on holiday