10% Of Parents
Work On Christmas Day

23rd December 2007

Christmas is traditionally regarded as a time for families, but sadly for many children there are a lot of parents in the UK who will be celebrating in the office. More than 500,000 businessmen and women (roughly 1 in 10) are likely to miss Christmas Day with their families this year due to work commitments, according to research by Clydesdale Bank / Yorkshire Bank.

These parents will not be able to see the kids open their presents, watch the Queen’s speech or share Christmas dinner with their loved ones, because they will be at work. Many businesspeople also regularly fail to see the New Year in with their family as well it would seem, as the same number of people said they will miss New Years Eve this year.

The research showed that those in the East Midlands are most likely to be away from their families, with almost a quarter having regularly missed Christmas Day. The North West (22%) was second in line and Scotland (20%) came in third suggesting that these regions are willing to prioritise work over family if needs be. At the other end of the scale, businessmen and women in Yorkshire are far more likely to stick to the traditional festive family holidays with only 3% having missed either Christmas Day or New Year’s Eve.

Sadly prioritising work over family doesn’t stop at Christmas, suggesting the British legacy of long working hours is still a reality for too many families. Other important events that were missed by a significant number of business people included children’s birthdays, school plays and family holidays.

More than one in five admit to having missed their own child’s birthday in the last year. How this affects the children themselves has yet to be explored.

These findings really are testament to the fact that Brits just don’t know when to say stop when it comes to work……

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