6 in 10 U.S. employees working during summer vacation: Survey

Responding to emails most common

Six in 10 (61 per cent) of working Americans plan to work during their summer vacation, found a recent survey by TeamViewer.

The 2,000 workers surveyed said they are expecting to perform tasks that include:

• reading work-related emails (38 per cent)
accessing a document on work/home computer (32 per cent)
receiving work-related calls (30 per cent)
• receiving work-related text messages (24 per cent)
completing work asked to do by boss, client or colleague (20 per cent).

More than two-thirds (69 per cent) plan to bring a work-capable device with them on vacation, with 61 per cent who plan to bring up to three such devices. In addition, 67 per cent of vacationers said they actually expect to use a device for work-related purposes, with smartphone (40 per cent) as the most popular device to use, followed by laptop (39 per cent), desktop computer (24 per cent) and a tablet (18 per cent).

Eight in 10 (83 per cent) survey respondents said having to work during vacation is becoming more common in America, but that doesn’t mean they’re happy about it. In fact, 89 per cent said they would react if they were asked to work during vacation by their boss, many in emotional or even sneaky ways, including:

• do the work but not happily (34 per cent)
• feel their boss doesn’t respect their time (29 per cent)
• worry about the boundaries of their personal lives (24 per cent)
• would say no (22 per cent)
• would be happy to do the work (14 per cent)
• would turn off work devices and ignore it altogether (13 per cent).

The study shows that the trend of mixing work into summer vacation is particularly acute among generation Y, those currently aged 18 to 34, who are statistically more likely than any other age group to say they expect to work during their vacation (73 per cent).

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