Share
For John Wheeless, a project manager for a Charlotte security company, going on vacation doesn't mean getting away from work. He takes his cell phone and laptop with him on family vacations so his employer, SFI Electronics, can reach him.
“It's required to stay in contact with work,” said Wheeless, an S.C. native who spends his yearly vacation in Myrtle Beach with his wife and three kids.
Last weekend, as the whereabouts of missing S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford gained national headlines, the chatter touched on when it was OK for someone to disconnect entirely from work.
Sanford's eventual confession that his out-of-contact time off was related to a mistress in Argentina underscored that it's not more than top business executives who are expected to be linked to office at all times.
Studies indicate that technology and the recession have compelled more rank-and-file workers to stay connected all the time.
The growing expectation to stay connected is made possible by cell phones and e-mail but enhanced by social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter.
“Once people know you're behaving this way, businesses expect you to be at their beck and call, so vacations become hard,” said Gary Marchionini of UNC Chapel Hill's school of information and library science.
People stay connected to the office while on vacation partly because they're expected to, but also because they feel guilty and fear a backlash if they don't, said Marchionini.
Work anxiety during the recession prompted the Society for Human Resource Management to conduct its first study of workers and out-of-office habits this year.
The January survey showed that almost 50 percent of 605 full- and part-time employees around the country check their work e-mails while on vacation. A survey of 250 advertising and marketing executives revealed that 30 percent checked with the office at least once daily on vacation, up from 19 percent three years ago and 11 percent in 2001.
Ten percent even said they try to avoid vacations now, because they cause more stress than satisfaction.
The survey was conducted by Creative Group, a division of staffing company Robert Half International Inc.
Caroline Parker, who has worked as an analyst at Wachovia in Charlotte since graduating from college last year, said she is married to the BlackBerry smart phone the bank gave her, even when on vacation. But Parker doesn't think constant contact with the office is always a bad thing, noting she can send e-mails and get information from home instead of having to be in the office on a Saturday morning.
“It can be a luxury because it lets you do work from anywhere,” Parker said. “But it's a love-hate relationship.”
Cassandra Short, also a Wachovia analyst in Charlotte, said she refuses to let communication with the office impinge on her vacation time. It's not a natural state to constantly be wired to work, and time off is meant for relaxing without work-related interruptions, she said.
She takes her cell phone when she and her family make their twice-a-year trip to Hilton Head Island, but only uses it to get in touch with the neighbors who look after her house.
“The cell phone more or less stays off. Vacation is supposed to be, well, vacation, and I'm already with everybody who counts,” said Short. But her husband is not as willing to go off the grid – he brings his laptop on their vacations so he can periodically check his work e-mail.
Kentuckian DeeDee Harper is spending her family vacation in Charlotte, and she said there is always someone who knows where she is when she is away. As the manager of a U.S. Bank branch in Walton, Ky., she says staying in touch with the office is a necessary evil.
“I want no part of keeping in touch with work,” said Harper, who arranged to vacation in Charlotte after she found an old friend on Facebook who lives here. “But they call me – they know they can call me – on my cell phone if they need me.”
