Following the introduction of a law stating French workers cannot be made to work and respond to work emails and calls after office hours, specialist recruiter Marks Sattin has calculated this would be worth £34.7bn if implemented in the UK financial and professional services sector.*

The average professional in these sectors spends 2.1 hours per day responding to calls and emails outside work hours which equates to 9.2 extra weeks of work per year – 19.1 million extra weeks across the whole finance and professional services sector.

Dave Way, managing director of Marks Sattin said,

“Obviously no one can be expected to work 24 hours a day and it is important people get time to switch off from work. However, in many sectors, particularly in financial and professional services, being responsive is vital, especially for people who work internationally across time zones. Having to tell a client or contact in New York at midday local time that you can’t respond to their queries will be extremely damaging to the French economy. The numbers we have calculated show just what is at stake.

“However this could be another feather in London’s economic cap if we see an influx of high quality professionals from across the channel looking for a more competitive financial and professional services sector and perhaps international companies relocating offices here.”

Data Sources

*Based on research conducted among 2,073 UK accountants and financial services professionals between January and April 2014. This found the average professionals spends 2.1 hours per day outside of work hours responding to calls and emails. This is projected onto the body of 2,058,500 financial and professional service professionals in the UK (http://www.thecityuk.com/financial-services-uk/uk-by-region). Average pay per hour is £32.10 according to the research.