Work breaks a hot topic for survey

While this summer will go down in history thanks to a series of heatwaves, it perhaps wasn’t as fruitful in other areas – such as the number of hours worked.

When broken down by region, a survey found that workers in Dundee were among the quickest to power down their computers and leg it for the lifts! Apparently, workers there clocked off an average of 20.4 minutes early, costing their bosses a not-insignificant £297.34 each.

Indoor and outdoor heating specialists Heat Traders ran the survey of 2,200 employees in a bid to find out how the hot weather affected British workers this past summer – just how early they left their offices or place of work and how much this cost the economy.

Heat Traders found that, on average, Brits left their working day, or their shift, 19.5 minutes early each day over summer (which adds up to just over an hour and a half per week) to get to the pub or the park. This potentially had a big impact on our economy.

In fact, Heat Traders calculated that the total cost to UK businesses based on workers leaving 19.5 minutes early per day this summer was the mind-boggling sum of £10.8bn.

However, working during those numerous heatwaves was certainly no picnic. Not only did public transport get unbearably hot but many offices did, too.

Thanks to soaring temperatures in the workplace, it was widely reported that some businesses had to send their employees home.

For those people who had to remain at work in searing conditions, the survey found that almost one fifth of Brits (18.8%) had arguments with colleagues over the temperature in the office this summer, whether it was too hot or, as is more usual for us in the UK, too cold.

Perhaps because of the heat we experienced, 38.4% of business owners believe it would be more productive to just let their employees leave early on a Friday next summer.

That said, employees wouldn’t really thank them for it – only 11.3% of Brits said they would make up the extra hours or get in a bit earlier on a Monday to compensate for the time they got off early on a Friday afternoon.

Heat Traders also asked Brits which day of the week feels like it is the longest; it’s no surprise that Monday came out on top (45.1%), with the longest stretch to the weekend. However, Friday feels second longest (19.6%), possibly because those last few hours until home time feel like they take three times as long. Thursday felt like the shortest day, with only 3.9% of respondents saying that it felt like the longest day of the week.

The cost to business was calculated based on the average wage of employees across a three-month period (JuneAugust), and the amount of minutes employees left work early.

To find out how the UK’s areas compare, check out Heat Trader’s interactive map: heattraders.com/ work-s-out-for-summer/

Free at last, free at last... some workers downed tools early.