More than six in 10 asset managers are bored at work

Feeling bored at work? You are not the only one. A survey found that more than six in 10 asset management staff find their jobs uninteresting.

Fund industry employees are far more bored at work compared with those working in education (50 per cent), technology (56 per cent) and research and development (45 per cent). Peter Sleep, a fund manager at 7IM, the UK wealth manager, said the high level of boredom reported by asset management staff could be linked to ?self-esteem or the regard the public have for their jobs?. ?Working in education or IT is regarded relatively highly, whereas financial services are generally regarded lowly. This may come through in how people react to these services,? he says. Although asset management has a reputation for being the staid section of the global finance industry, its workers are less bored in their jobs than those in banking, where almost seven in 10 workers are fed up. Fund staff are also not as bored as legal professionals, where 81 per cent find their work repetitive.

Workers in middle- and back-office jobs at investment houses, which include fund administration and support functions, are the most bored, with 91 per cent saying they were fed up, according to a global survey of 1,300 workers by Emolument, the salary-benchmarking website. Despite holding what is considered the most exciting roles in asset management, portfolio managers were the second-most bored workers in the fund industry, at 68 per cent. Mr Sleep said: ?If you think about the attributes of successful investors, or asset managers, it is long term, low churn, detailed research and so on. This is quite boring and you have to wait a long time for your investments to work out. ?Having said that, we work in a fascinating financial world with so much going on that there is always something to keep you fresh.? Bev Shah, a former fund manager and managing director at City Hive, a group for women in asset management, said she was never bored while she was an investor. But she added: ?There are many functions that support the fund management team that could be seen as monotonous.? Tim Wright, asset management reward leader at PwC, the consultancy, warned boredom was a big challenge for fund houses. ?The risks of boredom in the workplace include disengagement, lower productivity, a lack of innovation and, in some cases, individuals seeking alternative employment.? The least bored staff were fund professionals working in institutional sales, as well as relationship management, the survey found. Alice Leguay, co-founder of Emolument, said: ?Those with the most socially active jobs in the asset management industry, such as relationship management or institutional sales, which involve constant contact with colleagues and clients, are less likely to face crushing levels of tedium.?

This article was published in Financial Times, 27th February 2017