The favoured property has half-a-dozen bedrooms a paddock for the ponies and enough land

The favoured property has half-a-dozen bedrooms, a paddock for the ponies and enough land to provide what estate agents call "protection". And if no suitable house is available, the new rich are also buying farmland and building a manor to their own fancy. Last week, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported that though farm profits were down farm land prices were steady.The explanation in the South-east is a strong demand for what the estate agents call "residential estate farms", fuelled to a large extent by City bonuses.Dealers and traders often end the year with double their salary, collecting an extra pounds 100,000 or more, while executives might have seven-figure bonuses. Clearly, the reasons why employees stay in a job are different to what their bosses believe, and managers who remain stuck in the 1980s are likely to lose their best people.". One of the time-honoured indicators of boom times in the City is bounding ahead again. Business types who have made a packet in their thirties and forties are on the hunt in increasing numbers for a place in the country. But the most important reason given by employees was "missing the excitement of work".More than four out of ten of the staff surveyed said that if they won the National Lottery they would change jobs, perhaps to work for a charity or voluntary organisation.

Only two out of ten said they would quit work.Of course, many people outside the City would see these high earners as having won life's lottery already.Clive Donnison, a director of Abacus, said: "This research indicates that companies have to think very carefully about how to retain their good employees. Ten per cent even said that their work gave them a purpose in life.The bosses thought employees came back to work after their holidays either because they needed the money (90 per cent) or were worried about what had gone wrong at the office while they were away (10 per cent). Employees said the most important thing was their opportunity for development and promotion. still have to embrace the new Nineties philosophy".It blames the companies for clinging to outdated images from the late 1980s, the years of films such as Wall Street with their "greed is good" mentality. To understand their employees, the merchant banks need to watch This Life rather than re-runs of Capital City.The survey, covering staff in the most mobile age range, 21 to 40, found that their typical stay in a job is only just over three years. They rank salary as less important, on a par with friendly colleagues and a pleasant working environment. While their employers are right to recognise that loyalty to the company is a thing of the past, most make the mistake of thinking that leaves pay as the only thing that would motivate their employees.The research, conducted for the City recruitment specialist Abacus Financial Selection, concludes: "Employers ...

The "loadsamoney" image of sharp-suited City whizz-kids, whose loyalty lies only with their next million-pound bonus, is completely misplaced according to a new survey. For all their high-spending ways, it takes more than money to keep them happy. High-fliers working for the big investment banks are motivated by having a creative and interesting job with opportunities for personal development. If you typed in a URL, please make sure you have typed it correctly. In particular, make sure that the URL you typed is all in lower case.