MODERN LIFE IS rubbish.
Damon Albarn and Blur told us as much more than 20 years ago.
However, if you ask the average Irish office worker on holiday, they might tell you it’s taken even more of a nosedive in the intervening decades.
According to a large-scale (not to mention timely) survey, more than 8 out of ten of us have been contacted by work while on annual leave (84 per cent, to be exact).
That stat by itself might be enough to make your blood boil gently — and if so you might be best advised to click away from this article and go to your happy place, because apparently some of those calls relate to queries as mundane as asking how to turn on a computer or when the plants need watering.
The study of 6,500 Europeans, including 500 Irish people, was carried out by travel website lastminute.com.
Being asked about the status of a project (29 percent), where a document was saved (28 percent) or for computer log in details (21 percent) were among the most common reasons for the contact.
9 per cent of respondents said they were called and asked when they were coming back to the office.
Turn off your phone would be the obvious advice… But it turns out employers and colleagues are using every available angle to track us down at the beach or the poolside.
Text messages and emails are common alternative methods, according to the survey — while instant messenger services like WhatsApp are also being used. 9 per cent said they had been FaceTimed or contacted over Skype.
Perhaps we have only ourselves to blame? Nearly two in five people that they had answered work calls because they felt obliged to, and only slightly fewer (37 percent) because they felt responsible even when away. 8 percent admitted to simply being workaholics.
As the myriad communication methods available on Planet Earth expand year-on-year, it seems there may not be any immediate solution to the problem in the short term.
However, the survey does present us with one possible way to reduce the problem — become the boss: while in 3 out of five cases, workers had their holidays interrupted by an employer, just ten per cent of respondents said they had been called or emailed by underlings.
So, let’s all work harder, everyone. Climb that greasy pole. Break the glass ceiling.
Maybe get a few extra hours in over our summer breaks?
No… Wait…
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