The survey of 416 finance and accounting professionals and managers in Australia found that 68% of employers expect their staff to be available to some degree while on annual leave or out of office hours.
The survey suggest middle managers and senior managers are virtually permanently on call.
Over 70% of employers expect middle managers to be on call, while 88% expect their senior management team to be ready to address business matters while on holidays.
But Andrew Brushfield, director at Robert Half, says the high sense of obligation doesn't just come from the employer side.
He says more than half of employees surveyed said they wanted to stay in touch with work, as filtering and addressing emails as they came in was more attractive than facing hundreds of emails on their return from holidays.
"The expectation is higher on the employer side, you can still clearly see that workers want to remain connected," Brushfield says.
He says technological advancements mean the issue of accessibility during out-of-office time is only going to get worse, so employers and employees need to find practical ways to address the problem.
Some simple suggestions include employees having a quick chat with their boss before they go on holidays and specifying times when the employee would be available to quickly address pressing matters.
Before they leave the office, employees could leave a checklist of key tasks that need to be done during their absence and let colleagues know their holiday plans to stop them calling or email.
Employing a temporary worker to fill in is another idea, although this will have costs for the employer.
And employees worried about trawling through hundreds of emails when they arrive back in the office should think about setting aside a few hours on the day before they return to tackle this task.
"There are little things that people can do that will help meet both parties' expectations," Brushfield says.
"I think it needs to be managed. Employees and employers need to take responsibility around ensuring there is some mental space when people are on holidays."
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written by Motorola CLIQ XT, April 21, 2011
