Brits most likely to say 'we don't live to work'

Dean Holden was a station announcer for 16 years working shifts, including over the Christmas period

Dean Holden is one of many people thinking there is more to life than work, hanging up his mic as a railway station announcer after 16 years.

"Life is too short. That's always been my saying - live it," he told the BBC.

His early retirement comes as a study suggests people in the UK today are more likely to say it would be a good thing if less importance was placed on work than they were 40 years ago.

They are also among the least likely to say work should always come first.

Mr Holden worked his last shift at Avanti West Coast on Tuesday, and will retire officially from the company in September.

The 58-year-old said he had worked all his life since he left school 41 years ago, doing a range of jobs around the UK including working in local government, on the London Underground and latterly as a station announcer at Birmingham International.

But he has decided to quit the long shifts two years before he was due to retire to have some time off with his wife, and then consider getting a part-time job "a couple of days a week" towards the end of the year.

"It [retiring] was something I had to do for my own health and happiness," Mr Holden said.

"With shift work, that work-life balance does not exist like it should do. There are a lot of things I have never got the chance to do."

According to the World Values Survey carried out by King's College London's Policy Institute, views on work vary with age.

While millennials are much more likely to see work as less important, the opposite is true of older generations.

The study suggests 73% of people in the UK say work is "very or rather important in their life" - the lowest of 24 countries - though Russia (74%) and Canada (75%) are not far off.

By contrast, other Western nations rank much higher on this measure, with 96% of people in Italy and Spain agreeing, and 94% in France.

And further afield, in Asia the Philippines and Indonesia scored 99%.

Having seen his father not have the chance to enjoy his retirement before his death, Mr Holden said he "did not want to go the same way".

He said his first plan was go on a trip to Iceland to see the Northern Lights, which was a "lifetime dream" of his.

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Speaking about the findings, Prof Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at KCL, 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 their mid-20s and 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.

'Job isn't centre of my life'

One example of this shifting attitude towards work is that of Laura.

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, it's not the centre of my life. That's family and days out with friends."