With the summer holiday season looming, research from recruitment firm Glassdoor has found that nearly half of employees (47%) struggle to disconnect fully from work when on holiday, so leaving them more vulnerable to burnout.
The poll of 2,000 UK workers also found that one in five (21%) admitted to feeling the need to keep on top of what was happening in the office while on holiday. A similar percentage (20%) worried about uncompleted work they had left behind.
A further 18% said they could not switch off knowing they were contactable by work, and 16% revealed that their home and work lives were too intertwined to allow them to relax properly on holiday.
Just as worrying, it was clear this inability to switch off was being compounded by the fact many workers were even struggling to take their full holiday entitlement anyway.
The Glassdoor survey concluded that nearly three-quarters (72%) of those polled believed annual leave was an effective way to minimise burnout.
Despite this, only a third (34%) said their employer encouraged them to take their total annual leave allocation.
In addition, only three in five (60%) workers used all their holiday entitlement in the last year. And nearly a fifth (18%) of under-25s admitted to taking zero annual leave over the previous 12 months.
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When asked why they didn’t take all their holiday, 13% of employees said their workload was too heavy to take time off.
A further 9% felt pressure from their employer to limit their holiday use, and 8% said they couldn’t financially afford to take time off. Half (50%) also said it was easier to forget to take annual leave when working from home.
Financial worries also stopped 14% of those polled from fully relaxing (increasing to 26% for those living in London), and one in 10 said disconnecting was impossible because of the fear of losing their job.
Time off was increasingly becoming a ‘work-cation’ for many, with more than a quarter (28%) of the employees polled admitting to checking their emails while on holiday and 18% contacting a co-worker during annual leave.
A fifth (22%) were also contacted by their company while on holiday, which could also account for the fact that 14% of the workers surveyed said they also used their annual leave to job hunt, said Glassdoor.
Separate analysis of more than 382,000 anonymous employee reviews had also found that negative discussion around burnout among workers was up 48% in the past 12 months, hitting record levels.
Glassdoor economist Lauren Thomas said of the survey findings: “Burnout levels have skyrocketed in the last 12 months – and companies need to take action.
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“After Covid first hit, employers felt pressure to ‘build back better’, but many were caught short by labour shortages and the quick return of consumer demand. Although this tipped the job market in favour of the candidate, workplaces were left extremely understaffed and workers disillusioned.
“Placing employee experience at the heart of company recruitment and retention strategies will slow the upward trend of burnout we’ve seen over the past year and ultimately make workplaces healthier and more productive,” Thomas added.
