360°IT Blog

Gone are the days of everyone being able to skip happily out of the office, safe in the knowledge that while on holiday they won't have to think about work for a whole week or two. BlackBerrys, iPhones, laptops, WiFi - we have a whole range of tools at our disposal that make it all too easy to stay plugged into work, even when we're not there.

A recent study proves this - of the 2,500 managers surveyed by the Institute of Leadership and Management, one third worked whilst on annual leave to try and keep on top of their workload. The majority of those people replied to emails on their phones, although half took phone calls and one in ten went into the office. However, even those who did turn themselves off from work were affected, with 90% worried that they would return to a deluge of emails.

Today we're more connected than ever before, which of course has a huge range of benefits - it allows more flexible working, quick and efficient communication and much easier access to everyone in the business world. But are we too connected? 40% of the people surveyed said they did not return to the office feeling relaxed, meaning we could have a stressed workforce on our hands, especially in IT - a sector in which I suspect there is a high proportion of employees that don't switch off.

The IT workforce is vital to the British economy, but could the technology it relies on be hindering as well as helping? Do you think employers should put bans on employees working while on annual leave? Is this something we may see in future? Who knows, but to keep a happy and motivated workforce, maybe it's necessary.

Then all we have to do is tackle the holiday blues - I'm not so sure of a cure for that one...

Maggie Berry is MD of womenintechnology.co.uk.

Tags: human resources, work-related stress, information overload, always-on technology, holiday working, connected workforce, smartphones, mobile working, email

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