More than half (54%) of young accountants in the UK say they take time off work to intentionally avoid busy dates in the work calendar, such as tax and reporting deadlines, with 21% of workers citing illness, according to new research commissioned by AccountsIQ.
The research was conducted among 251 young finance professionals between the ages of 18 and 35 who have up to three years’ experience, and of those who have intentionally avoided the busy days, 44% have admitted to doing so by calling in sick as opposed to booking annual leave.
The issue of absenteeism is perhaps unsurprising, with 96% of young finance professionals claiming they get frustrated in their current roles. Of these, 41% cite the reason being that expectations are too high and 39% are frustrated with the lack of recognition.
Darren Cran, CCO, at AccountsIQ comments on the results: “Poor morale, frustrations with workload and lack of technological resource among younger professionals threaten to undermine the long-term vitality and performance of finance and accounting. We need to see closer attention to nurturing young finance professionals, who have a different set of attitudes and expectations of their employers than previous generations.”
