Study: Workers stay linked via e-mail on vacation

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by James Evans

(IDG) -- Thanks to technology, summer vacations are no longer the stuff of beach, boating and fun in the sun, according to a new study released Friday.

Gone are the days of disappearing on a vacation from work and other pressures of modern day life. In fact, a study commissioned by Andersen Consulting suggests that about 83 percent of American workers stayed in touch with the office via voice mail, e-mail, cellular phone or pager during vacation this summer in the U.S.

"I think it suggests that the idea of vacation being something separate from work no longer exists," said Tom Davenport, director of Andersen Consulting's Institute for Strategic Change, a business research center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Over the long run, you have to question if this is good for mankind. I am guilty of the same behaviors myself, and I wonder how long this can go on."

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The 306 survey participants from 43 U.S states and the District of Columbia, who work full-time and earn more than $75,000 annually, said they are taking mobile phones and laptops with them and are checking voice mail while on vacation. According to survey participants, 56 percent of them took a cellular phone on vacation, 16 percent took a laptop and 13 percent took a pager.

Of those who took a laptop on vacation with them, 61 percent also checked their e-mail, and 83 percent of those who scanned mail responded to messages. Those who avoided e-mail during vacation returned to an average of 37 e-mail messages for one week of vacation. Additionally, some 16 percent of those who did not check e-mail came back to 50 e-mail messages for each week gone from work.

One in three respondents said they checked their voice mail while on vacation, making it the most common mode for staying wired to the office. About 54 percent checked their voice mail for messages once a day while on vacation. Of those who checked once a day, about 62 percent responded to the voice mail.

There is a gender difference in voice-mail usage. Forty percent of men, compared to 27 percent of women, checked voice mail. The study, however, found that women -- 79 percent -- responded to voice mail more than men, at 50 percent. Nearly two hours were needed to respond to the voice-mail messages.

Those who skipped checking phone mail came back to about 11 messages, on average, and it took them more than two hours to return the calls once they had returned to work.

The study concluded, however, that most of the survey participants -- 90 percent -- accepted they had to stay in touch with the office. Only 10 percent said they resented having to stay in touch with the office.

Andersen Consulting hired Bowen Marketing Consultants of Concord, Massachusetts to conduct the phone survey.

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Andersen Consulting

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