Long Hours Culture: Should Founders Work Smarter Not Harder?

British business owners work longer hours and take fewer holidays than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe, according to a survey on workplace habits carried out by financial technology company SumUp.

That shouldn’t come as any great surprise. Entrepreneurs tend to see long hours not only as essential to driving success but also as an indicator of their commitment. Twelve hour days are not uncommon and the working week can easily stretch to include Saturdays and Sundays.

The SumUp survey – based on responses from 3,763 businesses in the U.K., France, Germany and Ireland – suggests that more than 40% of British company owners spend more than 40 hours a week at work, with almost a third saying they are in the office for up to 60 hours. A small minority – one tenth, to be precise – work more than 60 hours. Compare and contrast with France In contrast, only 15% of entrepreneurs in France admit to working more than 40 hours a week.

But is long-hours culture a good thing? Does spending more time in the office necessarily make you more productive or does it ultimately lead to burn out and poor decision making? I emailed a selection of British business owners and entrepreneurs to get their take on the subject.

Getting Started

Certainly, there are dangers. Commenting on her company’s survey, SumUp Product Marketing Lead Corin Carmenisch said: “Running a small business requires hard graft, passion and a willingness to go above and beyond, but without looking after yourself, you can quickly burn out or suffer physical symptoms. The glorification of constant work can lead to misconceptions about what it means to be successful, often at the expense of mental well-being.”

But it is a hazard that entrepreneurs seem ready to embrace, at least in the early days, when there’s a broad acknowledgement that getting a venture off the ground will require a substantial investment of time and energy.

Thom Groot is CEO and co-founder of The Electric Car Scheme, a business founded to provide a tax-efficient way to buy electric vehicles. “When starting a business, there is always a lot to do,” he says. “You need to create a lot of output as fast as possible and you will typically work more than 40 hours a week.”

In some cases a lot more. Groot says that when The Electric Car Scheme started, he and his co-founders were typically working 80 hours a week. “Now that’s probably come down to 60,” he adds.

Joanna Jensen, founder of skincare brand Childs Farm – established in 2010 and sold for just under £40 million to PZ Cussons in 2022 – says entrepreneurs don’t necessarily see long hours spent in the office as work.

“The success of UK founder-led businesses speaks for itself, and I think when you are working hard to achieve your goal, it’s not really working – it’s fun!,” she says. “I don’t think being a founder is everyone’s cup of tea, and for some of us there is a sense of urgency to get your product to market quickly, efficiently and with flair so as not to miss the opportunity you’ve spied.”

There are sacrifices, but these are outweighed by the outcomes, she adds. “Yes, it was frustrating when I couldn’t see the kids as much as I wanted, and yes I was tired and put on weight because I couldn’t find much time to exercise. I went through a hideous menopause, and two major operations. But I had a roof over our heads, food in the fridge, and purpose in my life which meant I helped millions of little ones with poorly skin – including my own daughter – to have a bath and a hair washed without pain.”

Effective Working

However, as Thom Groot sees it, there is a point when founders should consciously strike a balance between their working and personal lives.

“There is a point where it becomes counterproductive. Either you become burnt out or in the last hour of work you do at the end of the day, you don’t do your best work,” he says.

In other words, long hours only really make sense if the work you are doing is effective. This is a distinction drawn by John Mackin,entrepreneur co-founder of the Business Scale Academy

“The amount of time you work and the actual progress you make aren’t always the same thing,” he says. “What matters is knowing your key milestones and having a clear plan for reaching them. Strategic decisions and high-level actions can drive growth without requiring long hours.”

And as he sees it, the key to establishing a decent worklife balance is to leverage other people, through hiring, outsourcing or partnerships. “If there’s no plan for expanding and delegating, pushing longer hours won’t be sustainable. Without a structured scaling approach, you’ll quickly hit your limits, which can lead to burnout or the need to step back just to regain balance,” he adds.

Claire Crompton, founder and commercial director at Manchester-based data search company TAL Agency agrees. As she explains, the company has reduced physical office days to just one a week. She is a great believer in working smarter, not just harder.

“Yes, the early stages of your business may require a few extra hours, but it’s what you’re doing with those hours that really matters. Are you procrastinating on something more urgent by prioritising an admin task that could be handled by someone else, or later on in the day? Or could you delegate your task to someone else,” she says.

If there’s a trajectory, it runs from the all-hands-on-deck requirements of an early stage company through to a more mature situation where work can be delegated, allowing leaders to prioritize their time.

But tt can be tricky to get the balance right. Entrepreneurs can be notoriously reluctant to delegate and working long hours can become – in the longer term – a counterproductive habit rather than a necessity. Sometimes conscious efforts are required to keep things on track. Regular workload reviews, the switching off notifications out of office hours and greater trust in those to whom work is delegated.