Vacationing Americans Stay Connected
Sept. 1 -- Vacationing Americans have given newmeaning to the advertising slogan “Don’t leave home without it.”
Since April, some 83 percent of Americans who took a vacationthat was one week or longer refused to leave their jobs behind,according to a survey released today by New York-based AndersenConsulting. They stayed connected to the office using cellularphones, laptops, pagers and voicemail, the survey said.
The findings were from nationwide telephone interviews of 300full-time workers with household annual incomes of $75,000 or more.
“It shows that everyone has a need to stay in contact,including with work, and that there’s more competitive pressure outthere than ever before,” said Glover T. Ferguson, Jr., chiefscientist at Andersen. “There’s a bunch more years to come ofsqueezing enormous efficiencies out of the economy, and that hasgot everyone on edge.”
So Much for R & R
Just ask Leo Chu. The 27-year-old senior account manager for aSan Francisco-based Internet marketing firm took his laptop andcell phone to a weeklong vacation in Sun Valley, Idaho. As hisfriends hiked on the last two days of the trip, Chu found himselfworking instead.
“It certainly ruined the relaxing portion of it,” Chu said.
Chu thought he would be “a good citizen” by offering to checkin periodically with the office, read his e-mail and be availableby cell phone. “Sometimes it’s easier to take care of these thingson your own than to hand it to a colleague … But it backfired onme,” he said.
Of those surveyed, nearly 20 percent said they spent more timekeeping in touch with work during their summer vacations than inyears past. Sixty percent brought along some kind of mobilecommunications device. Cell phones topped the list.
Survey participants worked in a wide range of fields, includinghealth care, education, government, and manufacturing. The largestgroup of respondents — 38 percent — identified themselves asprofessional or managerial.
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