Londoners make the most excuses to try and escape making drinks for colleagues

Management being the biggest tea shirkers!

Ahead of next week’s National Tea Day on 21 April, a survey conducted by Citation HR investigated work brew breaks of 2,000 UK office workers, which revealed the politics and pecking order of the office tea round. It found that Londoners make the most excuses to try and escape making drinks for colleagues in the office tea round compared to anywhere else in the UK, according to new research.

Some of the biggest excuses include claiming they’re too busy and that it takes too long.

Londoners also worry they’ll make bad brews more than anywhere else in the country.

Analysis compared to other regions revealed that Brighton is the laziest city when it comes to offering others hot drinks in the workplace and 59 per cent believed their colleagues don’t pull their weight.

The people of Belfast avoid the kitchen all together because there’s too many people to make for whilst office workers in Brighton are also the most likely to resent their tea round responsibilities (45 per cent).

Edinburgh are most likely to skip out on the whole charade and go to a coffee shop instead.

The research also revealed that hierarchy in the workplace is thriving when it comes to office brews.

Notably, those in the most senior positions avoid offering drinks to others with half of all Directors surveyed (49 per cent) admitting they only ever make hot drinks for themselves, whilst most others offer round to colleagues.

The reason given by a quarter of Directors was that “there’s too many people to make for” and this was reflected in the results. Directors and senior managers were most likely to resent their tea round obligations (51 and 49 per cent) and yet most senior managers – 61 per cent – believe their colleagues don’t pull their weight.

Half of those surveyed said their colleagues don’t pull their weight, whilst more than one third admitted to resenting their obligations to always make drinks for others.

Jenny Ware, HR Business Partner at Citation, said: “This survey has revealed some interesting insights into the office pecking order and begs the question, are brew rounds reflective of wider business hierarchies?

“It’s a very old-school office tradition that junior members of the team wait hand and foot on senior leaders and managers by making tea and taking responsibility for tedious office admin. Unless it’s specifically within their job description, shared responsibility of such tasks is the most positive and productive way to ensure a happy workforce.”