This news is not healthy and needs to be reversed because vacation days are a great way to recharge after a stressful day/week/month/year in the office.
If at all possible, take a vacation from the responsibilities and stresses at work and unplug completely from the phone and laptop. When work demands don't allow a 100 percent break, limit time away from family and friends by blocking out short periods of time and focus on being highly productive and efficient.
Unified communications, collaboration and mobile solutions provide many of the same resources available at work while at a hotel. With these productivity enablers, those emails and voicemail's can be handled quickly. An online web conference can be completed in an hour, and a quick IM can address questions in minutes. These tools allow employees to stay on top of work projects without loosing entire days of vacation fun.
Calls and email are in one place for fast review and responses. Email boxes fill up fast. With UC and mobile resources, work emails are routed to your mobile phone where they can be prioritized for answering during the blocked out work hour or handled after the vacation is over.
Incoming phone calls and voicemail's also can be moved to a mobile phone and organized to save time
The audio message is streamed to a mobile device where all recent activity can be tracked. Employees can review and respond to a customer with a question or a coworker with a problem.
When a voicemail does need a response, make the call without getting stuck with a huge calling fee by moving incoming calls onto the Wi-Fi and off the cellular network to avoid call charges.
Join a can't miss meeting
Employees can join multimedia work sessions through their laptops, tablets or phones and easily share spreadsheets or presentation materials with others in the meeting.
Keep deliverables and projects on track to meet upcoming deadlines
Deadlines don't move and that can make vacations inconvenient. A quick IM or text can help a colleague make a decision that will keep the business-at-hand moving forward.
Visuals are another great, quick way to share knowledge and help colleagues avoid confusion on important projects.
Desktop sharing shows a coworker or a client the hard-to-explain specifics and quickly reveals processes or details that may not be easily understood through email or voicemail.
Balancing work and life is always difficult, and vacations add another layer of complexity. Studies show that days off lead to better health*** and more productivity.
Earned vacations should be taken without guilt because business and work projects can move steadily forward by checking in for short periods when it's absolutely necessary.
The many communication options in mobile, UC and collaboration tools will keep the work on track and for those critical times when employees can't completely check out on their days off.