Richard Quest: what weekend?

Quest: Weekends are no longer sacred

LONDON, England -- "And on the seventh day the Lord rested," so says the Old Testament. But if creation was taking place today, would the creator still choose a seventh day off?

Not according to the latest survey of top executives which says home and work are rapidly becoming one. Accountemps, a temporary work agency, says in its latest survey that more and more top executives are taking work home at the weekend.

Apparently up to seventy five per cent of Chief Financial Officers in the U.S. who were questioned said they spent at least five hours at the weekend working. An astonishing ten per cent of that number worked over fifteen hours on their days off.

QUOTE "These days there is a huge demand on workers to perform better than before. To go the extra mile. And that means being prepared to go home with a bulging briefcase."    VIDEO Working weekends wrecks relationships Real Quicktime Windows Media

Accountemps Chairman Max Messmer believes that "technology is making it ever easier for busy professionals to work around the clock."

But it is a temptation that should be resisted "allowing your job to monopolise too much of your personal and family time can lead to increased stress" concludes the study.

And that stress, of course, can eventually wreck your home life… even your marriage.

"It's prevalent" says Vanessa Lloyd Platt, a divorce lawyer and author of "Secrets of Relationship Success."

She says that not knowing when to stop working is a major cause of marital conflict. " If you don't want to turn up in my office spending a lot of money on lawyer fees you've got to set aside some time for yourself. "

The home is increasingly becoming the office

The problem these days is that as economies slow down and business pressures build there is a huge demand on workers to perform better than before. To go the extra mile. And that means being prepared to go home with a bulging briefcase.

"There is certainly an increase in the number of people who are having emotional problems which affects their work when they get it out of balance," says Lloyd Platt.

Of course, if you are reading this while surfing the web for work you will be only too well aware of what we speak.

But there is some consolation. Even those who take work home at weekends draw the line at taking it with them on holidays. Most of the Accountemps CFO's didn't take work with them on vacation.

The moral seems to be this advice from Vanessa Lloyd Platt. "Weekends have got to be sacrosanct." Which is something a few thousand years ago Someone Else decided was true.

And bearing in mind the biblical precedent, try telling that to your boss when he shrieks if that report is finished.

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