8 01732 759725 WORKPLACE By Joe Walsh, Director of B2B at Samsung UK A new breed of British business owners are setting a new working pace There’s no doubt that UK business owners are the hardworking backbone of the economy. Based on our research, we found that they are also leading the charge on transforming our preconceived ideas of how we should work. For modern entrepreneurs, work is all about bringing individual satisfaction and reward. A lot of those who work remotely admitted they’ve done non-work activities during what we’d consider as a traditional “working day.” Amongst those, three-quarters (74%) have taken time out to exercise and almost half (47%) have tried a new skill, such as learning a language. Some other unusual work-time activities include learning to knit, bathing a pet iguana, attending a football match and 46% admit to getting their hair done during their office hours. Some of the business owners (22%) even said they’ve now gotten into the habit of taking daily naps to help them perform better. The message is clear – work smarter, not harder. As the stereotype of how a For years, there have been several stereotypes pedalled by the media, and high-profile business personalities, that you need to be ‘burning the midnight oil’ to get ahead in business. Foregoing the pleasures of everyday life with friends and family to pursue business success at any cost. With the shift to fluid working across many businesses in recent years however, we questioned whether this was still the case, so carried out some bespoke research among British business owners to see whether they reinforced or busted this win at all costs perception. The results were both surprising and gratifying. Firstly, the idea that business owners are chained to the desk day in, day out, for continuous periods is no longer the case. On average, entrepreneurs are clocking on at 8.21am and off at 3.06pm for their core working hours. This indicates they are working on their own schedule to fit around other aspects of their life. One in five of those polled (20%) said they only work when they want to, while just 14% stick to a traditional 9-5. This shows the rewards of efficient working practices without being confined to traditional fixed hours. business owner must work and act is being rewritten, they need the right tools to make this switch. As we are more connected, entrepreneurs that have the right technology in their hands not only challenge the status quo but are more agile and able to blend the demands of work and life in a more fluid way. Our research found that over half (51%) have upgraded their work phone so that they can work whenever from wherever they are. As many of the respondents expressed, technology has given them the flexibility to run their business as effectively from a beach in Bali or after picking up their kids from school. With the right tools, all business owners can juggle what they need to do and what they want to do. Fluid working will continue to soar in popularity and how you get work done doesn’t matter as long as you deliver. Thanks to increased technological advances, we can communicate with people from across the world in a matter of seconds.
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