Remember when summer was for relaxing? With laptops, smartphones and tablets, we are more connected than ever before. Even when we're trying to unplug.
Nearly 60 percent of U.S. employees check email regularly, take a work-related phone call or otherwise check in with the office while they are on vacation, according to a new survey of more than 1,000 American workers by Pertino, a cloud-based networking business in Los Gatos, Calif.
It's not all bad news. For many, being able to check in makes it easier to check out for a while, the survey finds. Almost half (47 percent) of survey respondents say they experience less stress on vacation if they can stay in touch with the office while they are away. Men are slightly more likely to check in with the office than women, according to the survey.
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If you plan to check in with the office while you're away, here are a few tips from Pertino on how to make sure you don’t let your inbox overwhelm your play time.
- Set aside a specific time each day when you will check in with the office. Aside from that pre-determined time, let go of work.
- Store your office software in the cloud. If you need to deal with an emergency, all you need is an internet connection.
- Log in over a secure network. Tourists stick out, so be sure you are using a Wi-Fi network that demands authentication and a password. That makes it harder for criminal hackers to steal information like login credentials and private work-related data over a shared network.
Related: Small-Business Owners: Working Harder, But Optimistic
Catherine Clifford
Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbi...
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