BRITISH BOSSES SET TO LOSE £132M IN PRODUCTIVITY THIS SEPTEMBER

Amount of time each country spends telling holiday stories at work

As the summer holidays draw to a close, new research today reveals that time spent re-living holiday antics during the first week back in the office could cost UK bosses up to £132m in lost productivity during early September¹.

The ‘What’s the Story’ pan-European report by leading travel and leisure retailer, lastminute.com, found out that Irish holiday-makers who share their stories spend the most time storytelling, each spending an average of 26 minutes when back at work telling co-workers their holiday stories. Britons are not far behind, each spending an average of 22 minutes re-living their experiences.

Amount of time each country spends telling holiday stories at work

Across the nine countries surveyed, 19% of Europeans admit to lying or exaggerating their stories to make them sound more exciting upon their return. The Irish are the biggest braggers, with 29% of the nation admitting to the habit, whilst 17% of Brits do so. The French are the most truthful – only 13% confess to making up tales.

Summary of each country’s bragging habits

The Irish are also the most confident of the nine European countries in their story-telling abilities, 39% rating their countrymen as ‘very good’ at it. The Spanish and French are also confident, with 50% and 55% rating themselves as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ respectively whereas the Swedish and Danish are less so, with 19% and 15% respectively describing their countrymen’s abilities as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. Brits are more modest, with 41% rating themselves as ‘average’ story-tellers and just over a quarter (26%) rating themselves as ‘good’.

Mark Maddock, Managing Director of lastminute.com comments,

“Whether we’re showing off our holiday snaps or sharing anecdotes, describing our summer holidays to our work colleagues is a great way to re-live the experience and beat the post-holiday blues. Whilst here at lastminute.com we would never advocate avoiding work to regale colleagues with tales, sometimes you just can’t resist telling that story by the water cooler. And once all the holiday chatter is over and you need something to look forward to again, have a look at lastminute.com for some great inspirational deals – we recommend highly discounted quality offers such as our exclusive Top Secret hotel range.”