Two-thirds of Belgian workers can be contacted about work while on holiday

Some 66% of Belgian workers can be reached on holiday to answer work-related questions and 16% will deal with work queries even if they are not remotely urgent, a study by the HR company Securex has found.

According to the study, more and more employees are making themselves available to deal with work issues while on holiday and the size of the company where they work and its type of activity have no bearing on results. Men can be reached on holiday more readily than women (75% against 59%) and employees who are not replaced by a colleague while on holiday are more likely to be able to be contacted than those who are.

Of the employees who said they could be contacted on holiday, 90% said they had agreed to this in advance. Among this group, only 6% had agreed to it because their employer had specifically requested that they be available on holiday to answer work queries. At the same time, one employee out of ten stated that they could be reached on holiday only because their employer had told them to be available.