Don’t leave home without it! Europe's senior-level professionals pack work for their holidays

Don’t leave home without it!  Europe's senior-level professionals pack work for their holidays

Expectations come to light whilst mixing work with holidays:  More men want recognition vs. compensation, half the women want both

A more common traveling companion:  Europe's senior-level managers and executives are bringing work with them on holidays.  A recent survey* by the leading career service Experteer (http://www.experteer.co.uk) showed the majority of respondents travel on holidays with laptop, smartphone, and/or mobile phone. 

When asked about the extent they engage in job-related activities, differences appeared amongst Europeans: Whilst almost 60% of the British, the Spanish, French, Swiss French, and Italians check their work e-mail at least every other day,  more Germans do so "only in urgent cases" or “never.” The Dutch prefer clearer separation between work and play: more than one-third never check e-mail whilst on holidays and one-fifth access it only when urgent. 

Expectations whilst working on holidays?

Are there underlying expectations senior-level professionals have whilst working on holidays?  Yes, in a nutshell:  57% of men expect their extra work to be recognised and 47% want their time compensated.  Among women, about half want both.

A few days to mentally get away?

Two-thirds of Europe’s leading professionals do not miss work whilst on holidays, with the strongest sentiment amongst the French and the Spanish.  However, that leaves one-third with their minds still contentedly back in the office.

Like the majority of their fellow Europeans, almost three-quarters of British senior-level managers and executives need the initial few days of their holidays to unwind from their job demands.  Part of it is due to the continuing engagement with work e-mails, but almost 60% are not particularly interested in contacting their office to check on employees and projects.

More than half of Germans complete their holidays without the stress of finishing important job tasks.  This is not the case for other Europeans: almost three-quarters of French senior-level professionals must do so and almost half the British.

Nonetheless, the majority of British senior-level managers and executives will be taking one to two weeks off this summer, so there will be some time to unwind from their jobs.