Half of holidaymakers check work emails

More than half of office workers check their emails while on holiday, according to a new survey.

Figures from online travel agent Travel Republic show that 52% will log in for work when they should officially be chilling out and 26% of those said they would respond to emails.

Researchers, who quizzed 1,000 UK-based office workers, found that younger employees were the most conscientious, with 38% of them reading and responding to emails when they are away, compared with 29% of people aged 45-54.

Among those aged between 35-44, 45% said they let their out-of-office message do what it’s intended for and never checked their emails.

Women were also more relaxed than men during their time off, with 54% saying they never looked at work emails, compared with 42% of men.

Reading work emails had caused 36% of couples to fall out and 70% of women confessed to having a problem with their other halves checking their emails on holiday compared with 58% of men who saw it as an issue.

Travel Republic’s marketing officer Elliott Pritchard said: “The reality is that many office workers cannot completely turn off.”