Figures drawn up by a property industry recruitment guru show that estate agents work only two thirds of the hours they could - and that’s sizeably less than solicitors, accountants and surveyors.
Rayner Personnel says it’s settled on the figure after using a benchmark of the government’s working time directive, which states Britons should work for no more than 48 hours a week, including all overtime.
Rayner analysed a number of professions and estate agents come well into the lower half of the league table.
With an average work time of 41.4 hours per week, electricians are the hardest working profession, clocking up 86.3 per cent of the maximum weekly allowance.
Close behind are police officers and plumbers on 85.8 and 83.5 per cent of the maximum allowance respectively.
Surveyors work 77.1 per cent, accountants 71.3 per cent, and solicitors 70.1 per cent.
Then Rayner Personnel comes to the agency profession and says: “With an average of 32 hours a week, estate agents clocked up just 66.7 per cent of the maximum allowance each week with only nurses, clergy, teachers, PAs and hairdressers coming in below them.”
However, chief executive Josh Rayner tries to soften the blow by saying that some of the hardest working professions may be under-represented by the average number of hours worked per week.
He says: “Anyone that has worked in the property industry will know that it’s not your regular office nine to five. The average time spent working at your desk is a far cry from the actual reality of chasing paperwork after hours and working weekends to get a sale over the line. So the likelihood is, that any agent worth their salt is probably exceeding the maximum allowance week in week out.”
But he warns that more hours worked does not mean agents are doing a better job.
“It’s very much about working smarter, not harder. The digital disruption of the property industry, in particular, has enabled us to streamline many parts of the selling process and this has allowed estate agents to be more productive in a shorter period of time” he adds.
The full league table drawn up by Rayner Personnel, using government sources, is below.
|
Profession
|
Average hours worked per week
|
Working time directive max hours ave per week
|
Average hours worked as % of max weekly working hours limit
|
|
Electrician
|
41.4
|
48
|
86.3%
|
|
Police officer
|
41.2
|
48
|
85.8%
|
|
Plumber
|
40.1
|
48
|
83.5%
|
|
Pilot
|
38.4
|
48
|
80.0%
|
|
Engineer
|
37.9
|
48
|
79.0%
|
|
Chef
|
37.9
|
48
|
79.0%
|
|
Surveyor
|
37.0
|
48
|
77.1%
|
|
IT technician
|
36.5
|
48
|
76.0%
|
|
Sales/marketing associate
|
36.5
|
48
|
76.0%
|
|
Doctor
|
35.9
|
48
|
74.8%
|
|
Business analyst
|
35.8
|
48
|
74.6%
|
|
Accountant
|
34.2
|
48
|
71.3%
|
|
Lawyer / Solicitor
|
33.7
|
48
|
70.2%
|
|
Estate Agent
|
32.0
|
48
|
66.7%
|
|
Nurse
|
31.3
|
48
|
65.2%
|
|
Clergy
|
31.1
|
48
|
64.8%
|
|
Teacher
|
28.6
|
48
|
59.6%
|
|
PA / Secretary
|
28.1
|
48
|
58.5%
|
|
Hairdresser
|
26.4
|
48
|
55.0%
|
|
Cleaner
|
20.8
|
48
|
43.3%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
United Kingdom (overall)
|
33.1
|
48
|
69.0%
|
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Good lord, who sits and makes this stuff up. I used to own a successful sales and letting agency and started at &.00am and never left before 8.00pm at night on many days. Then there was weekends. Plus, answering messages after hours and tenants breakdowns...and we had 8 staff too.
If the writer of the article needs a chat, I’m here 24 hours a day!
I'm left scratching my head with this one.
It's not just the person who reflects this survey in a piece of, frankly, nonsense journalism. It's the person whose idea it was in the first place to collate such inaccurate and poorly researched tripe. Thankfully, this is not a printed piece - think of all those wasted trees.
32 hours! thats just about our Mon-Wed, I've lost count the number of times we've tried to call a block manager, solicitor or proptech and they've all downed tools at 5pm, not to mentioned the fixed closed lunch breaks while we're working through emails having a quick coffee and pre packed sandwich. I suspect this is way out of touch with the actual reality of agency in busy towns and cities.
These industry 'news' sites are going down the pan.
I think the phrase is something like, "...it's not the hours you put in but what you put into your hours..."
Again, focusing on one data point fails to provide anything meaningful. The only situation where this has any value is if a) people charge by the hour and b) what that hourly rate is. Even that's flawed but it's better than this irrelevant nonsense.
Rayner Personal have done a couple of these pieces now and if they continue in this way, it'll just damage their brand...
Eh? Our staff regularly work past 7pm and this is also based on a 5 day week with most agents open on weekends. This is a bizarre piece of research and certainly doesn't reflect the hours worked here- nor at any good agency that I know. Delivering exceptional service and standards is far more than a 9-5.
What unutterable rubbish!
There are numerous companies offering staff recruitment. Frankly, any company which suggests estate agency is a 'soft touch' to their recruits is not a company I would want to use for recruitment, best action - remove them from your phone book.
Also, the suggestion that nurses only work 65.2% is frankly insulting with everything going on the world right now.
Goodness this "guru" needs to spend a few more work hours finding out the real facts!
I have never heard such b#ll#cks in my life.
This is very thin research from Rayner Personnel, who usually offer better than this.
Is this a wind-up? Im an Agent working an average of 58 hours a week, this article is almost laughable
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