People in the UK are among the least likely to say work should always come first, according to a new survey. According to the study, people now are more likely to say it would be a good thing if less importance was placed on work than they did 40 years ago. But this view varies depending on age, the survey by King’s College London’s Policy Institute found. While millennials are much more likely to see work as less important, the opposite is true of older generations. According to the World Values Survey, 73% of people in the UK say work is “very or rather important in their life” – the lowest of 24 countries.
The percentage of people who hold the same view is similar in Russia and Canada, where 74% and 75% of people state the same thing respectively. By contrast, other Western nations rank much higher than the UK on this measure, with 96% of people in Italy and Spain agreeing, and 94% in France. And further afield, countries like the Philippines and Indonesia scored 99%. Speaking about the findings, Prof Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said the findings suggest a “steady drift towards a greater focus on getting work-life balance right” in the UK, with “people less likely to think work should be prioritised over spare time, that hard work leads to success, or that not working makes people lazy”.
The survey suggests that this attitude has increased over time in the UK. Between 1981 and 2022, the share of the British public who said it would be a good thing if less importance was placed on work rose from 26% to 43%, the study said. This opinion has gradually become more widespread in several other Western nations too. For example, over a similar period, the proportion holding this view rose from 25% to 41% in Canada and from 30% to 45% in Germany. The survey also concluded that the UK has one of the most favourable views of people who don’t work, with only Sweden less likely than the UK to say non-working individuals are “lazy”. However, at the same time, Britons are more likely to agree that work is a duty towards society than they were around two decades ago.
Generational Differences
Prof Duffy said there are “very different views between generations in the UK, with older generations more likely to say work should be prioritised, even as it becomes less important in their own lives as they move into retirement. “Millennials, in contrast, have become much more sceptical about prioritising work as they’ve made their way through their career.” According to the survey, more than half of UK millennials say it would be better if there was less emphasis on career and work in their lives. But older generations are not as likely to share this view, with just over a third of baby boomers agreeing. Baby boomers are people aged between their late 50s to late 70s while millennials are aged between the mid-20s and the early 40s. Explaining the generation divides, Prof Duffy said: “
There will be a number of explanations for these shifts, from the nostalgia that tends to grow as we age, in thinking younger generations are less committed than we were, and the long-term economic and wage stagnation that will lead younger generations to question the value of work.” But he added that the trend in the UK among younger generations in particular reflects a changing attitude across higher income countries too. “The data also shows a long-term shift in preferences for work-life balance across a wide range of richer countries, where over the last 40 years across many major economies, more now say that it would be a good thing if less importance was placed on work.”
‘Job isn’t centre of my life’
One example of this shifting attitude towards work is that of Laura’s. She cut her working hours so she could spend more time at home with her family in London. “I really wanted to spend more time with my little boy who is only two years old,” she told the BBC. She also switched careers to pursue interior design. “My old job was just not making me happy – and I thought something needs to change. And although I find this new role interesting, its not the centre of my life. That’s family and days out with friends.”
