City offices put off jobseekers
Businesses may be losing out on picky employees as a new survey reveals that almost half of Londoners hate the office they work in.
The survey, conducted by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), reveals that 48 per cent of London workers have issues with their desk space, while major office bug-bears include faulty air-conditioning and a lack of facilities — 15 per cent of workers said that an on-site gym would make or break a job offer.
One anonymous ex-associate at Ernst and Young said that “hot desking” was a big issue. He said: “Never being able to sit in the same place really annoyed me.”
Another former employee at financial services agency Standard and Poor’s has issues with the air-con: “I was falling asleep at my desk, so I took a nap in the toilet where the air-con worked. I went to the ‘toilet’ about five times that day.” How lovely…
▀ Europe is the hot topic of the moment, and even London’s festival organisers are weighing in. As part of Canada Festival, a series of economy-focussed debates are being held at CNBC’s studios just off Fleet Street, with a panel of economic heavyweights looking at the merits of the EU. Tonight’s discussion, “Is Europe bad for business?”, will discuss the effects of a Brexit after the UK’s EU referendum. Europhiles like the Institute of Directors’ Alexandra Renison will go head-to head with panellists including ClerksWell chief economics blogger Rob Killick (pictured) to determine the UK’s best course of action. Will a Grexit lead to a Brexit? Has the Eurozone gone septic? Should we all be eurosceptic? Suffice it to say, it’ll be hectic.