Growing weary of the rat race, Britons 'downshift'

It was the long hours, short weekends, and grueling international travel that spurred Sorrel Newbery to radical action.

After six years as a high-powered management consultant with a six-figure salary but no time to spend it, Ms. Newbery quit. She is now training to become a schoolteacher and has totally transformed her lifestyle.

"I got to a state where I was working in Holland Monday to Friday and was so tired when I did get to go home. And I wasn't enjoying what I was doing and just couldn't see the point," she says. "I thought I could do so much more than just working all hours to change a share price by a quarter of a pence."

Britons are the workaholics of Europe, according to a new European Union study. Their average work week is 44 hours, five hours more than the average German and six more than the average French. By comparison, US workers log 43 hours a week on average.

Yet more and more Britons are leaving the rat race for simpler lives.

With TV saturated with shows depicting urbanites retreating to the country, to job trainers reporting more high-paid professionals looking for different lines of work, the idea of "downshifting" has swept England. Even two of Prime Minister Tony Blair's top aides, including his press secretary Alastair Campbell, have joined the trend.

According to Datamonitor, a business information and research company, 200,000 British workers and their families will "downshift" in 2004, bringing the total to around 3 million.

"Our research shows that an alarming number of people appear to be unhappy in their employment and unfulfilled by their work," says Roger Ramsden, marketing director at insurance company Prudential, which deduces from its own research that 1 in 14 British workers have already downshifted and that more than half a million 35- to 54-year-olds plan to join them in the next three years. "With the proper forward planning, an enhanced quality of life is something everybody can achieve."

Analysts point to a number of reasons for the trend.

First, the pressures of work and information overload are more demanding than ever before, some note, forcing many to call a timeout.

Also, people are beginning to value their time more: Many say there is no point earning a high salary for 40 years if you get few chances to enjoy it.

A third factor is that society is generally more affluent now than a generation ago, giving many people the option to forego the cash incentive for a more measured, serene existence. And some even cite Sept. 11 as a watershed that forced people to face up to what they truly value in their lives.

"The things we value are not just what we consume and own and have," says Dominik Nosalik, an analyst at Datamonitor. "It's also about the time we have and the energy we have to do things. This is becoming much more important to people.

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