IT managers are not taking their full holiday entitlement
because of increasing work overload, according to the Chartered
Management Institute.
The institute quizzed 120 IT managers for its annual survey which
was published last week. It found that 50% of IT managers took
their full holiday entitlement, compared to 66% in the previous
year.
Some 79% said their professional responsibilities affected the
holidays they took and many claimed to have interrupted their
holidays to attend to work.
Soaring in-tray duties were the primary reasons IT directors
disturbed their holidays, and 46% said they would have to deal with
100 or more e-mails on their return after just one week away. A
further 6% said they would have more than 500 e-mails when they got
back to work.
Project pressure was cited as the next biggest cause of an
interrupted break, where 25% had project deadlines to meet while
away. Of these respondents, one IT director actually left a holiday
to complete a project.
When questioned about sharing work with colleagues, 21% said their
unwillingness to delegate affected the amount of holiday time they
took.
Once on holiday, 19% of IT directors said they were unable to let
go and ended up spending the entire break catching up with
background reading to keep on top of work-related issues.
However, for some this was not a problem - 23% said they enjoyed
their job so much they chose to work on holiday.