Member Article

What office worker’s return to after holidays

The average British holiday maker will return to more than 800 emails, nearly three hours of missed phone calls and almost six pieces of office gossip.

That’s according to new research by experts at LondonOffices.com who quizzed a focus group of office workers about the amount of work waiting for them when they returned from their hols.

Researchers found that the average worker will return to 832.4 emails after just a fortnights break.

In those same two weeks respondents said that also waiting for them were 34.2 telephone messages, representing 2 hours and 53 minutes of phone calls.

On their first day back office workers were fully prepared to attend roughly 2.8 unexpected meetings.

When it came to LinkedIn respondents said they would on average return to work with 4.3 invites waiting for them.

Respondents also claimed that would would return to at least 6.3 new pieces of office gossip.

One respondent who took part in the study said: “The worst thing about going on holiday is having to come back to work.

“I always have a mountain of emails to answer when I get back from my break, it is a real hindrance to my overall productivity as it takes me at least a day to get back to my usual routine.”

Another person said: “By the time I’ve waded through about a thousand emails is gone lunch, and I’m late for a meeting that was arranged whilst I was on holiday.

“Holiday’s are meant to remove stress but I’m back from work for just five minutes and two weeks of laying on a beach have been completely wasted.

“Some of my colleagues check their emails when they are on holiday just so that they don’t have a mountain to return to.

“I couldn’t possible do that, when I’m on holiday, I’m on holiday and the last thing I want to be doing is thinking of work.”

A spokesperson for LondonOffices.com commented: “No one likes returning back to work to find hundreds of emails waiting for them.

“It just takes up so much time when you return from work. In fact I have know people spend one whole day going through their emails after returning from holiday.

“From past experience it probable takes between two to three days before you find your feet at work again.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by LondonOffices.com .