In the recent survey of company bosses across the UK it has been revealed that almost half are happy with their salary and eight per cent believe they are actually overpaid. Law chiefs are the biggest earners, with the average salary for a boss in this sector being £122,500, while the lowest earners were found in the design industry, with some company chiefs settling for as little as £25,000.
In the survey of 1,000 company bosses two fifths of bosses work more than 40 hours a week and one in ten regularly puts in between 50 and 70 hours in the office weekly. But a fifth feel that they are undervalued by their colleagues and one in six admit to feeling regularly annoyed by the attitude of their own staff. However a third are much more confident and believe their staff are actually inspired by them and love working for them.
Eight out of ten said they are often forced to work weekends and, on average, company directors do not use a quarter of their annual holiday entitlement, meaning they miss out on a full weeks holiday every year.
But despite this, and the fact that a fifth told researchers that they had missed family weddings or funerals in the past because of work commitments and a similar number have been absent for Christmas Day or New Year celebrations, two thirds of bosses insist they have a good work/life balance.
Colin Mercer, Managing Director at Wickland Westcott, who commissioned the survey said: “Anybody who is in, or wants to be in, a position of leadership and authority in a business environment will know that there is no substitute for hard work. Dedicated graft is the back bone of business and this is reflected in our study, many bosses work long hours and often have to put business before other things in life but the majority feel they can do this and maintain what they consider to be a happy work/life balance.
“It is also very encouraging to discover that many bosses feel they inspire those who work for them, of course there are some who feel undervalued but overall British bosses are a pretty optimistic bunch. It is these two qualities, of hard work and optimism above all else, that will help lead us out of these tough economic times.”
Two fifths of bosses said they have been working longer hours since the recession struck and a quarter insisted it was these long hours coupled with the extra pressure the economic downturn put on many businesses that they disliked most about their job.
A quarter of bosses under-35 admit to feeling intimidated by their own staff, while this is the case for just one per cent of chiefs aged over 55.
It also discovered that job satisfaction rather than money was the main motivating factor for bosses, while one in eight insisted they were inspired to work harder by their own dedicated staff.
