It’s certainly the most wonderful time of the year for British workers as they are feeling a lot jollier this Christmas and will be spending £10 billion on socialising with their colleagues this month. Last Christmas, workers spent just £5 billion partying with their co-workers. These findings have been revealed in a new survey issued today by Travelodge.
During this December, 57% of British workers have ten festive events planned with their co-workers. This includes: going out four times for a merry tipple, three Christmas lunches, two festive dinners and a party.
A third (33%) of workers reported that they have been saving all year so that they can socialise more this Christmas in comparison to 2017. Key reason is that they want to end the year on a high due to the uncertainly next year brings due to Brexit.
The average British worker will spend £323 on socialising with work colleagues during the festive season, £130 will be invested on looking good to impress co-workers and £51 will be used for transportation for work dos – a total of £504. This collectively equates to a £10 billion spend.
The survey commissioned by Travelodge surveyed 1,500 British workers to investigate their views on festive socialising in the workplace. Key findings revealed that over half, 56% of workers think it’s important to celebrate Christmas with colleagues as it helps to improve morale and that the festive holiday is an important time in the calendar to spend with co-workers.
However all of this festive socialising is not good news for British bosses as employees have reported that they are going to be 25% less productive in December, due to being tired and hungover from socialising with work colleagues. This will result in a collective loss of £11 billion** for employers.
Over a third (36%) of super-organised workers have already booked a day’s holiday following their main festive works bash, as they know they will not be fit for work the following day.
Further research findings revealed that one in ten workers has already booked a hotel so that they can get ready and stop over after their main Christmas work’s bash this year.
Shakila Ahmed, Travelodge Spokeswoman said: “British workers are certainly having a holly, jolly Christmas this year. We have experienced an early surge in room bookings across our 556 UK hotels since September for festive work events during December. Many workers have booked rooms early as it can work out cheaper to stay over in a Travelodge hotel than get an expensive taxi home.”
Further research findings revealed that workers from London are the biggest party animals as they will be attending 11 events and spending £631 on eventing, looking good and transport home. Workers in Glasgow aren’t far behind attending a total of 10 events and spending £515. Workers in Cambridge will be attending 9 festive events and spend a whopping £566.
The Geordie workforce will lose the most productivity (33%) following their work Christmas party; whereas workers in Edinburgh will be the most productive and the Scottish city’s workforce will only be 17% less productive.
