Half of Professionals Check Emails Every Day on Holiday
Gadgets and devices may be getting in the way of quality holiday time, as a recent poll revealed that half of those in professional management roles check their emails every single day whilst on a holiday abroad.
Many of those who do this revealed that it caused friction between them and their co-travellers, whether it was their partner, family members or their friends.
The last thing you want to do on holiday is upset the people you’re with by spending more time staring at your smartphone or iPad than you do spending quality time with them
www.sunshine.co.uk polled 2,113 UK employees in management who had been abroad on holiday in the last 12 months.
Half of those taking part confessed that they checked their emails on a daily basis and just over three quarters of these work-obsessed culprits were on holiday with their partner and children at the time, whereas 11 per cent were just with their partner, six per cent were with friends, and the remaining respondents were travelling with other family members.
Chris Clarkson, co-founder of sunshine.co.uk, said: “Holidays should be all about spending time with loved ones or friends and forgetting all about work for a week or two.
“A bit of time away is very important, because if you’re constantly in work mode, you might end up suffering from burnout.”
The research also found that two thirds of respondents had tried to be discrete about checking their emails, while a quarter of those polled admitted to actually doing work whilst on their last holiday abroad.
According to the poll, the sectors guiltiest of checking emails whilst on holiday, were business owners, PR/marketing, sales representatives, media, and the legal industry.
When looking at the most common way in which people checked their emails, ‘Smartphone’ was the most popular answer, with 58 per cent, followed by 21 per cent using their laptop, and tablet device being the choice for 14 per cent of respondents.
Some 86 per cent of those polled were well aware that they would be checking their emails on holiday, as these people said they had checked the Wi-Fi availability in their accommodation before booking.
Chris added: “I was surprised that so many professional couldn’t resist checking emails every day on holiday and also by those who actually admitted to working whilst on their break.
“The last thing you want to do on holiday is upset the people you’re with by spending more time staring at your smartphone or iPad than you do spending quality time with them!”