Most Indians work even on vacation: Survey

Majority of Indians continue to tag along work on their vacations, says a recent survey that puts US and Australia on top of a list of countries where people find it hard to unplug.

Majority of Indians continue to tag along work on their vacations, says a recent survey that puts US and Australia on top of a list of countries where people find it hard to unplug.

According to a recent TripAdvisor survey, approximately 50% of those polled in India reported having worked during vacations over the past one year, compared to a global average of 44.19%.

The 'Working on Vacation Survey' polled over 17,000 employed respondents across 11 countries including 1100 in India. The other 10 countries include US, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain and the UK.

"While mostly no one enjoys having to work while on a vacation, today's hyper competitive and demanding work cultures preclude the fact that almost 50% of Indians ended up attending to work while on vacation last year," Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor India said.

53% of Indian respondents feel their vacation duration is 'Not Fair' compared to the rest of the world.

People in the US expressed most dissatisfaction with 75% respondents saying their vacation time is unfair compared to the rest of the world.

47% of Indian respondents said they do not mind doing a little work on vacation, while 46% would prefer to be totally disconnected, and 7% enjoy being connected to work while on vacation.

Across all countries surveyed, the top reason respondents cited for working while on vacation is that "there may be urgent situations that need attention". A total of 71% of Indian respondents polled too felt the same. While 11% Indians said they are most likely to report feeling guilty if they don't work on vacation in the US it was 18% followed by 14% in the UK.

Checking emails (81%) and responding to them (69%) topped the list of work activities that Indians said they did even on a vacation. The global average was pegged at 66% and 57% respectively.

Creating or editing documents, participating in conference calls, checking voicemails are among the other work related activities.

Respondents in India and the US receive less paid vacation time (18 days) than any of the countries surveyed. The global average was of 25 days.

Respondents from both India and US on average said they would like an additional four days of vacation, considering 22 days of paid vacation to be fair and reasonable. The figure is low compared to expectations of Brazilians and Russians who said they want most at 33 days per year.

Also 53% of Indian respondents do not feel amount of paid vacation time given in India is fair compared to what the rest of the world receives.