Working weekends is broker norm

The standard nine-to-five has been thrown out and replaced with longer, more irregular working hours in order for brokers to keep on top of their clients' needs.

Well over half of brokers admit to regularly working in the evening, and a quarter frequently put in extra hours at the weekend. Furthermore, as many as one in twenty admit to working every weekend without fail.

Most are working from home to cope with these extra hours, although this can be hard for the 23 per cent who simply do not have this luxury and end up confined in the office for long weekdays.

Indeed, the more engrained a broker gets, the longer they seem to work. Those that have been in the industry for a number of years will work 11-hours each day compared to the 9-hour average for less experienced brokers.

Some enjoy the flexibility that working outside the 9-5 gives them though, allowing them to put client cases to bed more quickly and free up time elsewhere.

BM's head of sales, Phil Rickards, said: "To provide a quality service, brokers need to be able to deal with clients at a time that's convenient for them and as lenders, we should ensure that brokers get support as and when they need it.

"We've seen that business is increasingly being submitted beyond the hours of 9 to 5 and even on Christmas Day some brokers spoke to Red, our online BDM. With BM, brokers can submit business 24/7 via the One Minute Mortgage, and our broker help desk is open on a Saturday morning."