The sky and sea are azure blue, the sand a golden brown. The air is clear and the Chablis chilled. Small groups relax at a “premium” Mediterranean resort. They are here for a well-earned break; a chance to recharge the batteries; essential R&R for the overworked executive in the new millennium. Good for the person; good for the company.
The aim: to turn a burnt-out, moody, erratic decision-maker caught up in the tyranny of the urgent into a calm, confident individual who weighs things up wisely.
Businesses get a good return on investment for the time and money spent on staff holidays. They lead to greater productivity, smarter working.
But look more carefully. The tubby, greying man at the next table is obsessed with his Blackberry; another is beginning to shout into his mobile while he paces anxiously... something to do with restructuring the finance group. And then another phone goes off. A sleepy woman snaps to attention.
What are these people doing? Where are they? Why are they bringing their office on to a continental beach? Why are they manacled to their technology?
Perhaps they are scared that the economic slowdown, with its inevitable lay-offs, will target them and that the only way to ensure continued employment is to be for ever available, even on holiday. Or are they narcissists who believe that the office can’t function without them?
A recent survey for the Chartered Management Institute confirms this technology-dependent trend. A third of employees prefer cash to holidays, and only a quarter take their full entitlement. Of those who dare leave the office, around a third check their emails while they are away, phone in daily, and leave their mobiles on. The beach bag bulges with reports.
In effect, they are not on holiday at all. They are simply working somewhere else: in a hot and sandy office. Worse, they disturb others with all their telephonic antics and temper tantrums when the technology breaks down. They might even induce guilt in the few souls brave, foolhardy or sensible enough to leave all that “stuff” behind.
The paradox is that the neurotic who clasps his phone as if his working life depends upon it might find that it leads to his being more likely to be “let go” - because an over-stressed employee makes too many errors, shows poor judgement and gets sick.
And the cure? Monitor and record phone/Blackberry usage; plan a slow decrease in time spent using it. Leave it at home when you go on holiday. Just turn the b* thing off.
(Condensed from an article in the Daily Telegraph)
