Fund managers are the happiest employees in any sector, with an overwhelming number feeling their work-life balance is “great”, a study indicates.
Emolument.com, which benchmarks salaries, quizzed 1,360 professionals in nine industries about their work-life balance, and found fund managers came out on top in both the financial services sector and the jobs market in general.
In all, 81% said they found their work-life balance to be satisfactory, with 38% saying it was “great”.
Fund managers are happy because they can “dictate their own timetables”, the research found. They are also not bound to be in work before clients are, or before markets open.
While fund managers can usually leave at a “reasonable hour” as markets close, they can also be somewhat flexible in their working arrangements, being in a less pressurised, client-driven environment compared to sell-side staff.
But middle and back office staff are decidedly less happy. While 42% felt their work-life balance was satisfactory, the same number believed it to be “awful” – and just 16% believed it to be great.
The cause may be that these staff are under pressure from traders and salespeople to deliver impeccable outputs in a highly time-sensitive manner, are more often blamed and rarely congratulated by their front-office teams, and work longer hours, the research found.
In country-specific terms, French workers were the happiest, with 71% satisfied with their work-life balance – perhaps unsurprising, given their five-week annual holiday entitlement, and 35-hour working week. Countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and UAE are at the bottom of the satisfaction table, with 56% of UAE workers believing their work-life balance to be awful.
The survey also suggested that women are less happy with their work-life balance than men – just 16% of women said their work-life balance was great, compared to 22% of men. Moreover, more women said their work-life balance was dreadful.
Emolument.com suggested extra responsibility for childcare – including looking after poorly children – and more “housework” duties, were behind this.
©2016 funds europe
