Nearly two thirds of office workers would rather take a pay cut than see a colleague lose their job – a new poll has revealed.

The survey by officebroker, the UK’s leading serviced office broker, found that 62{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e} of employees would rather sacrifice some earnings in order to keep their colleagues in a job.

It’s believed a number of tough recent years for firms may be one of the main reasons for this increase in workplace camaraderie.

Of those polled a ruthless 38{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e} said they’d rather see their colleagues sacked in order to maintain or increase their current salary.

Lunch breaks were first for the chop with 48{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e} of workers saying that would be their first office sacrifice if they were forced to make one. Cigarette breaks came second (14{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e}), followed by weekends (12{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e}) and their company car (8{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e}).

Caffeine was shown to be more of a priority amongst office staff than saving the environment with more than half of those polled (57{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e}) stating they would be happy to sacrifice green initiatives at work if the alternative meant they’d have to lose the high end coffee machine.

Chris Meredith, head of sales at officebroker.com, says the results show that money isn’t always the key motivation for workers.

Mr Meredith said: “Many people believe the way to motivate people is simply to give them more money but our results show that this view is far too simplistic.

“Nearly two thirds of those polled said they’d be willing to take a pay cut to keep somebody else in the job which shows just how important a good team ethic can be in the workplace.

“For some people money is their sole motivating factor so it’s no surprise that more than a third of those surveyed said they would be happy to see a colleague fired if it would benefit them financially.”

He continued: “Lunch breaks were the first thing people were willing to sacrifice although I think it’s fair to say many already do.

“It was also particularly interesting to note that one in ten workers would be willing to sacrifice their weekend off if it meant they were able to stay in a job.”

Credit: onrec.com