Most workers in the EU would prefer to spend less time at work and more time with their families, according to a new study on attitudes to work. Eighty per cent of Irish workers, asked why they would prefer to work part-time, said they wanted more time for themselves and 47 per cent said they would like to spend it with their children.
Despite all the hype about Celtic tigers, the study shows that most of us regard work as a necessary evil.
It was carried out on behalf of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions and is based on 30,557 interviews with workers across all 15 EU members states, and Norway. The target group was people aged between 16 and 65. In Ireland 1,400 people were interviewed.
The study found that unemployment in the EU was drastically under-estimated. The official EU unemployment rate is 8.3 per cent, but the survey found that two-thirds of the 31 per cent of people not in paid employment would like to be. The majority of these are housewives.
It is the attitude of those at work however, which provides some of the most interesting data. Although only 13 per cent of EU workers are self-employed, 18 per cent of those interviewed said they would like to be their own boss and only 38 per cent of workers regarded the option as "unacceptable".
In Ireland, the number of people stating they would like to be self-employed was 34 per cent, the highest in the EU apart from Greece.
Of those who said they would prefer to be self-employed, 62 per cent of respondents across the EU gave "personal reasons" and only 7 per cent said they preferred to be self-employed because they felt they would be financially better off. Irish figures were similar.
A similar pattern emerged when full-time workers were asked if they would prefer to be part-time. While 79 per cent of EU employees work full-time, based on a standard working week of between 35 and 39 hours, only 35 per cent of those surveyed said that this was their preferred option.
Eleven per cent said they would prefer to work longer hours and 49 per cent said they would prefer a shorter working week. However, even those wishing to work longer hours wanted the basic working week reduced to increase their options for time off.
At present, only 20 per cent of employees in the EU work 30 hours or fewer a week, but large numbers said they would seriously review the part-time option if pay rates were increased. "On balance," the survey found, "all presently employed people want to work five hours per week less".
Asked why they wanted more time off, 77 per cent of those surveyed said they wanted more time for themselves and 47 per cent said they wanted to spend more time with their children. The respective figures for Ireland were 80 per cent and 47 per cent.
About 9 per cent of employees worked from home and a third of employees employed in the workplace would like to work from home. Between 28 per cent and 31 per cent of self-employed people opted to work from home.
There was also widespread interest in sabbatical leave, with 57 per cent of employees considering sabbatical leave would be useful to them, but feeling it should not take them away from work for too long. The most popular sabbatical period was three months.