Workers too paranoid not to work on holiday

FUN IN THE SUN involves a laptop for most City employees on their summer hols, according to a new survey which claims employees are either too dedicated or too paranoid to disconnect themselves from work.

A poll of over 300 city workers on their “mobile habits, leisure and security”, found that an astounding 83 per cent of them said they’d take their mobiles and or Crackberrys with them on holiday. The study posits that this may well be due to deep-rooted paranoia on behalf of employees that whilst they are sunning themselves on a pristine beach somewhere sipping cocktails, jealous colleagues back in rainy Britain might be muscling in on their territory and backstabbing them. That’s not paranoia, that’s being perceptive.

Another less likely theory is that workers nowadays are simply far too dedicated to their jobs and want to contribute to their company, even while away on holiday. But let's face it, that’s not very likely is it?

Apparently a whopping 65 per cent admitted they would contact their office either by phone, text or email whilst on holiday, with 25 per cent revealing they would check their emails once a day. A more paranoid 18 per cent reckoned they’d be checking their emails two or three times a day, and 14 percent fessed up to not being able to resist emailing more than once a day.

In order to get their daily email fix, a third of workers surveyed will be lugging their laptops with them when they jet off to sunnier shores, packed in amongst their tasteless floral shirts and silly sun hats.

Just as dangerous as wearing tight Speedos on a public beach, poll sponsors Credant notes that City workers are likely to commit another grave misdemeanor in the form of the data security threat their roaming laptops pose.

The report notes that one in five don’t secure their laptops with a password, whilst 68 per cent don’t encrypt sensitive information on the machines. In an article last week, the INQ pointed out that in the US, 12000 laptops were lost in airports on a weekly basis, with similarly poor security practices employed by the ‘loser’.

Senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Credant, Michael Callahan, noted, “If any of these devices are lost or stolen, and are unsecured, the cost of the holiday will pale in comparison to the cost of losing the data.”

He reckons “employers must face up to the fact that their employees’ diligence, or paranoia for that matter, could be putting the company at risk and it’s their responsibility to ensure the necessary steps are taken to protect the company’s crown jewels, it’s data, wherever it travels!”

Let's just hope the ‘crown jewels’ of any employee who returns minus his company laptop after losing it this summer will also be protected. µ

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