Redundancy fears keep bosses off the beach

Fears of sector-wide redundancies are keeping construction bosses off the beach and in the office, a new survey shows.

Belt-tightening building executives are postponing holidays because they fear they will be axed, the survey by the Chartered Management Institute shows.

One in three construction bosses will not use their full holiday entitlement this year and more than half are trying to swap their leave for cash.

More than 50% of construction executives are staying at work to develop skills to make them “recession proof”, many more don’t take leave because they don’t want to let clients down and 29% have deadlines to meet.

Those who do get away have a hard time shutting out the pressures of the office.

Around 45% check their work email while away, 47% check their voicemail and one in five people fit in background reading for work.

Chartered Management Institute’s marketing director Jo Causon said people who couldn’t switch off on holidays risked problems back in the office.

She said: “There is clearly a fear that ‘out of sign means out of mind’ but without a proper break individual performance can suffer and employers will notice mistakes more than they will absence through holiday.”