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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, June 16, 2002

Getting away from it all harder than it used to be

By Stephanie Armour
USA Today

Employees expecting to get away for a summer vacation might be in for a rude surprise: There's no escape from the office.

Increasingly, employees are being required to check in at work even while they are on vacation, researchers report. Also, more workers are skipping vacations because of heavy workloads.

Associated Press

Employers are requiring employees to keep in touch while on vacation. And more workers are forgoing vacations because of financial concerns or too much work at the office.

• At Crossbow Group, a Westport, Conn.-based marketing services firm, all employees are asked to leave contact information. They must also let the firm know where they're going to be.

"As a senior manager, I don't go anywhere I can't be reached," says Jay Bower, president.

• At Mindbridge Software in Worcester, Mass., a Web site has been set up that vacationing employees can use to connect to the office. They can tap into their calendar, for example, or shoot instant messages to co-workers in the office. "It's important for the company that no one is really ever out of touch," says Scott Testa, at Mindbridge. "The dark side is, some people may feel, 'It's vacation, I take it to get away from work.'"

• Rick Schultz, in Duluth, Ga., is vice president of industry marketing at Teradata, which specializes in analytical solutions. Because of work demands, he's cutting the time he'll spend this year at a family vacation in Florida. "The days of taking a full seven days off and then coming back (to work) are over," Schultz says.

Forty percent of managers are required to leave their itinerary or contact numbers with the office while on vacation, according to a May survey by the American Management Association. Nearly 19 percent must contact the office even while away. That's up from last year, when about 35 percent were required to leave such information behind.

Two in five Americans will not take a summer vacation this year, according to a study by Stamford, Conn.-based market research firm InsightExpress. The main reasons: tight household budgets and an inability to get away from the office because of heavier workloads.

"The reason people aren't taking vacations isn't due to threats and security issues," says Lee Smith, chief operating officer at InsightExpress. "That's what surprised us."

Some experts say there are real dangers with the practice of keeping tabs during a downturn, especially as the requirement spreads from the managerial to employee ranks.

"There are fewer people to do more work. The person who covered for you on vacation isn't there anymore," says Robert Morgan, at Spherion, a provider of customized staffing solutions based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "Burnout is a real danger. People need to refresh."