Press Releases

06/08/2010

A quarter of workers can't switch off on holidays

· One in four check work emails while on leave
· 41% did not use their full leave entitlement last year
· 21% not taking any holiday this year
· 27% workload increases greatly before going on holiday

A quarter of Northern Irish workers have troubled switching off when they are on holidays according to a survey from NIjobs.com, Northern Ireland’s number one recruitment website.

25% of respondents told NIjobs.com that they check their work emails while on annual leave, 6% admitted to checking work related texts and another 5% said they ring the office while away on holiday. However, 64% told NIjobs.com that they switched off completely.

The NIjobs.com survey also discovered that 41% of respondents did not use their full leave entitlement last year.

Peter McMonagle, General Manger of NIjobs.com comments

“While it is great that we have such a conscientious and diligent a workforce here in Northern Ireland it is still important that people switch off from work completely when they are on annual leave. Just because iPhones and Blackberries make it easier to stay in touch with work does not mean that employees necessarily should. Any manager worth his salt knows that a well-rested workforce is both more productive and more creative. It is also crucial that employers enable their staff to take all their annual leave”.

A third of workers, 30%, said that their workload increased in the run up to their annual leave and admitted that they had “deadlines to meet and must brief colleagues in detail”.

A further 27% of respondents described their workload as increasing “greatly” and said they “ended up doing two week’s work in one before and after annual leave”. While a fortunate 23% say they can hand work over to colleagues and another 20% say their work can wait until they return.

Over half of respondents 54% are holidaying abroad this year while 25% are “staycationing” in Northern Ireland. But 21% say they don’t intend taking any holiday this year. Of the respondents going on holiday value for money was the driving force behind their destination choice with 56% of people saying that was their priority while 44% went for the weather.

This year 10% intend to take 3 weeks annual leave for their main holiday and a lucky 7% intend to take over 3 weeks. But the majority of workers 31.1% will be taking the more traditional two week break.

Northern Irish employers will be glad to hear that 32% of respondents told NIjobs.com that they were happy to return to work after their holiday while 36% admitted they were not but acknowledged that is it “always hard to settle back”.

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