News

August 08, 2014

Businesses face post-holiday backlogs and bills

Mountains of email, phone messages and high mobile phone bills are waiting for small business staff coming back from their summer holidays, according to new research.

The results of a survey by LondonOffices.com show that the average British holiday-maker will return to more than 800 emails, nearly three hours of missed phone calls and more than six pieces of office gossip after two weeks of time off.

On average, the survey found that workers will have to deal with 832 emails and 34 telephone messages, representing almost three hours of phone calls.

One respondent who took part in the study said: “Holidays are meant to remove stress but I’m back from work for just five minutes and two weeks of laying on a beach have been completely wasted. Some of my colleagues check their emails when they are on holiday just so that they don’t have a mountain to return to.”

At the same time, the high cost of roaming charges in Europe mean that business people – many of whom keep working while they are away – are incurring high bills for data usage.

Research findings released by Wandera reveal that Brits are set to incur roaming costs of £500 million this summer – and £170 million of that will be paid for by businesses. It found that employees use twice as much roaming data in June, July and August than in any other three-month period during the year.

Despite EU regulations to control data roaming charges, many business mobile phone users still experience “bill shock” after a trip overseas. The average cost is £650, according to the survey.

Eldar Tuvey, ceo of Wandera, said: “Data now accounts for 50% of overseas spending and is set to continue to rise, overtaking call and text charges. Many people make plans to minimise their calls while away, however data costs can escalate quicker and is much more difficult to keep track of. I would always advise anyone traveling with their phone to use wifi wherever possible as long as it’s secure.”

Related resources:

• Employees check email round the clock NEWS
• Holidays FAQs
• Slash roaming costs when you're abroad BLOG