Member Article

Bosses' wasted time costs billions

Britain’s business executives may be working the longest hours in Europe - but much of their time is wasted sorting unnecessary emails and phone calls, it has been revealed. Such office distractions are costing business across the country a combined £140bn a year, it is claimed. The average senior manager only manages to complete three hours 50 minutes of constructive work each day, a survey from car company Cadillac found.

More than half of office time is said to be spent dealing with unwanted emails and telephone calls, with 44% of bosses saying their most productive working happens on the journey to and from work.

More than four in five said they spent up to three hours a day reading and replying to emails, with 39% of all office emails travelling less than 100 metres from sender to recipient. As many as 75% of businessmen and women said they had suffered stress or “office rage” caused by an overload of internal distractions. Almost as many (71%) said people were shunning face-to-face meetings in favour of hiding behind email communications.

Steve Catlin, of Cadillac, said: “In today’s business world, time is probably the most precious commodity and being caught up in unnecessary internal communication, which takes hours to deal with, is a frustrating distraction.”

In an effort to increase the nation’s productivity, Cadillac is loaning out a fleet of its luxury SRX cars as mobile “think” spaces that can be used as meeting rooms or ‘quiet contemplation spaces’. How generous of them - we’re sure they won’t mind the exposure too much.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .