Interesting Facts

According to the TUC (Trades Union Congress) 5.3 million people in the UK work an average of 7.7 hours of overtime a week. (Chief executives topped a list of those doing the most unpaid overtime, at an average of 13.2 hours a week, followed by teaching staff (12.1 hours), finance managers (11.3 hours) and managers in production and health care workers (10 hours). The TUC has called on people to take their full lunch break and go home on time, asking managers to set an example by leaving on time too. Oh dear, I never leave a session on time, but then I don't get paid either. The TUC would hate me.) Source

According to the Sleep Council, the average Brit goes to bed at 11:15pm and gets just 6 hours and 35 minutes sleep per night. (Yes, not all Brits are lightweights like me.)

According to research from Japan, people over 40 perform best at work if their working week is restricted to 3 days. (They found that a part-time job keeps the brain stimulated, while avoiding exhaustion and stress. The bad news is that not working also damaged brain function. However, working extremely long hours was more damaging than not working at all.)

Paul Donovan called BT at 7.57pm on Saturday, August 1, to cancel his broadband package. He was put on hold with a pre-recorded message saying the 'lines were busy', a female voice then asked him to hold until one of their operators was free, he waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually, he went to bed, but he didn't disconnect and left his phone on charge. (When he got up on Sunday morning, he was still on hold - 14 hours and 31 minutes later, which is believed to be a UK record, but it's not a world record. That honour goes to Australian Andrew Kahn, who called Qantas Airways to confirm his flight from Adelaide, Australia, to New York City. He phoned the airline at 7:22 on a Wednesday evening and finally hung up at 11:01 Thursday morning. During his wait, he surfed the Internet, slept briefly and caught up on some reading, for 15 hours, 40 minutes and one second. How long would it take you to finally hang up? ) Source

According to the Economist the mysteriously popular music video “ Gangnam Style ” is  the most watched music clip of all time. ( PSY, the South Korean pop star who released the song in July 2012,  recently surpassed two billion views on YouTube.   At 4:12 minutes long, that equates to more than 140 million man-hours, or a cumulative 16,000 years of human life spent watching a strange Korean man prancing around.  The Economist worked out what else could have been achieved in this time:- It took 50 million man-hours to complete the “supercarrier”  USS Gerald Ford, so  3 such ships could have been constructed. We could have built more than 4 Great Pyramids of Giza. Created another Wikipedia. Built 6 Burj Khalifas (the world’s tallest building in Dubai). Maybe it's best not to add up how much time we spend on the net.) Thanks to  +april sis .

According to the ONS (Office for National Statistics) there are 1.4m jobs in the UK offering zero hour contracts. (Companies are, not surprisingly, attracted to the idea that they can hire staff without guaranteeing a minimum number of paid hours.   These " con tracts" (emphasis on "con" deliberate), often tie a worker to a single firm, but do not guarantee any employment from week to week.)

According to a study run by vouchercloud.com, 79% of office workers in the UK waste 4 hours and 22 minutes every day. (On average respondents believed that they actually did 2 hours and 53 minutes of productive work. The favourite pastimes that eat up "productive" time were:- 1.       Checking social media – 47% 2.       Reading news websites – 45% 3.       Discussing out of work activities with colleagues – 38% 4.       Making hot drinks – 31% 5.       Smoking breaks – 28% 6.       Texting /instant messaging – 27% 7.       Eating snacks – 25% 8.       Making food in office – 24% 9.       Making calls to partner/ friends- 24% 10.   Searching for new jobs – 19% Average time spent on each distraction: 1.       Checking social media – 44 minutes 2.       Reading news websites – 1 hour 5 minutes ...

According to the Office of National Statistics, over 1 million Britons are now on zero-hour contracts. (Under these contracts the employee agrees to be available for work as and when required, but the employer is not obliged to provide said work. Some zero-hours contracts even restrict the employee from seeking other work. 90% of people employed at McDonald's are tied to these contracts. I wonder if they are Luvin It?)

According to a survey run by Direct Line insurance, we need an extra 2 hours 45 minutes every day to do everything we want to do and have enough time to relax. (A basic need for most humans is to have seven hours of free time every day, but the average person nowadays (2013) only manages four hours, 14 minutes. In 1995, people had six hours and 57 minutes downtime, by 2000 that was reduced to six hours and 34 minutes. but nowadays it's a measly four hours, 14 minutes.  The culprit?  Technology.  So go on, switch off your computer and go and sit on the couch, or go and chill out in the garden, if you don't have a garden, take a walk in the park to feed the swans and get some fresh air.)