Being bothered by the boss while on holiday is more stressful than bungee jumping, according to a study.
It's also more bothersome than being stood up on a date, the study from lastminute.com found.
Its study was based on a survey of 2,000 working adults plus stress tests on 16 participants conducted by neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis, of Mindlab International.
The findings showed that more than 68 per cent of those surveyed had been contacted by their boss while on a break. Being asked where a document was or for computer log-in details were the most common reasons for receiving a call.
from the office while on holiday although sometimes the enquiry was to do with how much water the office plants needed.
Other reasons included questions on how regularly the office plants needed watering, while 10% of holidaymakers had been asked to work on something while they were on the beach.
Those most likely to get a call from the office while on a break were those working in retail, finance and marketing followed by those in IT, law and sales.
The stress tests showed that getting a single call or text message from the office was not only more stressful than bungee jumping but also worse than arguing with a loved one or getting stuck in traffic.
Dr Lewis said: "There is no denying the effect even just a quick text message from the boss can have when we are on holiday.
"It may not seem like a big deal to the sender but to the recipient the results are dramatic and significantly compounded by being in a relaxed state of mind."
ends
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article