More hours for finance managers

Howard Mackey enjoyed his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard this summer, but like many financial professionals, he remained wired to his clients and office.

For Mackey, president of the broker-dealer division of Rice Financial Products Co. in New York, a laptop and Black-Berry were as essential as golf clubs and swimming trunks for the two-week getaway.

He is not alone.

A recent report by Robert Half International shows that financial professionals are putting in more hours on the job than just two years ago. In addition, electronic gear keeps them increasingly accessible when outside the office.

“Years ago, I didn’t have a BlackBerry, a laptop,” Mackey said. “Now I have all that and I tend to work more.”

The survey of more than 2,200 financial managers in 17 countries on four continents found:

- 45 percent of U.S. finance managers surveyed said their hours have increased over the past two years. Among those, two-thirds said they now work an additional five to 15 hours a week.

- U.S. respondents say they work an average of 40.9 hours per week, which is third from the bottom and well below the 42.2 hours worked in Germany, 43.8 hours in Italy and 47.1 hours in Japan. Luxembourg workers top the list at 47.6 hours.

- Nearly four out of 10 of U.S. respondents said they sometimes or always take their laptops or PDAs on vacation, compared with 16 percent in Ireland, a country near the top of the list in hours worked.

- Only 32 percent of U.S. practitioners said they never work weekends, versus 65 percent in Spain and 51 percent in New Zealand.

A quarter of U.S. financial professionals say they work three or more weekends each month.

Worldwide, 37 percent of financial professionals polled said they work from 39 to 45 hours per week, with more than half putting in more time over the past two years. The most popular reasons for an increase in working hours are taking on more responsibility (56 percent), company growth (45 percent) and understaffing (27 percent).

“Workers have more responsibilities and more pressure,” said Christine Lehmann, Robert Half’s regional vice president for North Jersey. “Companies are often understaffed, even as workloads get heavier and financial managers face growing demands in meeting increased government regulations.

Companies are faced with finding a balance between getting work done without pushing workers too hard, Lehmann said.

“Working longer hours isn’t always the best thing for a business,” she said. Productivity can drop, and with the very competitive job market in the United States, “if companies demand that their staff work excessive hours, they may leave.”

Also, as business becomes more global, it’s useful to understand typical work hours and preferences across cultures, said Max Messmer, chairman and chief executive of Robert Half.

“Professionals around the world have differing expectations of how and when they should work,” Messmer said. “As organizations branch into new countries, they must understand and respect the customs within different parts of the world.

“While it may be acceptable to call contacts in one location in the evening or during their vacation, for example, others may consider it intrusive or unprofessional.”

The report, Working Hours: A Global Comparison, was based on a survey taken by an independent research firm and developed by Menlo Park, Calif.-based Robert Half, the world’s largest staffing-services firm specializing in accounting and finance.