Every morning, during her holidays, Laura* has the same ritual. Before her family members wake up, she steps into a corner of her room, opens her suitcase and grabs her work phone. For long minutes, or even longer, she check his emails, makes phone calls and sends messages to colleagues or clients. “I do it in a discreet way, so that no one makes me any remarks,” justifies this communications manager in a large entertainment box. Because remarks, she had some, from her husband and her children. “You are on vacation”, “stop with your phone”. Clearly that was not enough.
And Laura is not alone. 71% of French women and men answer their business emails and calls during their holidays, according to a survey carried out in 2020 by Qapa. Mathilde *, former freelance photo production manager, is one of them. “When the photographers were filming, I was their only contact. So I had to answer them, even if I was on vacation. Same story for Olga *, a lawyer in a Ligue 1 football club. In her community, the summer period is not synonymous with sunbathing at the beach or hiking in the mountains, on the contrary: it is transfer window and the resumption of the championship. “It’s a very busy time, so we have to be connected and available all the time. Even on vacation, if there is something to do, it must be done very quickly. »
“My job is my passion”
But does this inability to disconnect when others are enjoying the joys of summer depend solely on the type of job performed? “I criticize the various simplistic theories considering that these people are narcissistic, seek gratifications, work a lot because they have no private life, or take refuge in work for fear of emptiness and free time,” considers Marc Loriol, sociologist, research director at the CNRS and author of the book Addiction to work, From individual pathology to the collective management of commitment (Editions Le Manuscrit, 2023).
“There are endogenous factors, that is to say individual, and exogenous, environmental factors”, specifies Adrien Chignard, occupational psychologist. If for some, work comes down to a livelihood allowing treat yourself to a vacation, it takes center stage for others. This is the case of Laura: “my job is my passion. I have more trouble putting my phone away on vacation than taking it out to work. »
People who are very – or even too – conscientious are also more likely to work during their holidays. “These are people who always have the impression of not doing enough, who think that they are not working well and that it will eventually show, explains the psychologist. So they always do more. Mathilde recognizes herself in this description. “I want to do well, to satisfy, to be appreciated. So I feel guilty if I don’t work during my holidays. »
A bad managerial example
This impossible disconnection can also be explained, as we have said, by environmental factors. A bad managerial example, for example, does not help. Olga remembers an anecdote during her vacation in Greece. She was sunbathing on a boat and had no network. “When I came back to the platform, I saw that I had 15 missed calls for a supposedly urgent player contract story. And this managerial behavior seems contagious. “When I see absence emails and I don’t have an answer to a question for three weeks, it bothers me. »
This pressure is increasingly permanent in the business world, according to Marc Loriol. “Many executives must respond to explicitly expressed constraints, with objectives to be achieved. There are also constraints related to the survival of the company. If these people let their guard down, they fear that the company will suffer. »
The fear of being replaced
The fear of losing their job, of being replaced, is also significant in some people transplanted to their business laptop even on their beach towel. “I told myself for a long time that if I didn’t answer, it would seem that I wasn’t involved, that someone would do it for me and that I might lose my place,” says Olga. .
The young woman has since (a little) let go of the pressure, forced by her new companion. She has deleted her work notifications and checks her messages “only” twice a day. But she’s leaving soon maternity leave and acknowledges that she will continue to check her emails. “Just to be aware of what’s going on. »
*Names have been changed