Just as the summer draws to a close, I will finally get away on holiday: I have rented a cottage deep in the Yorkshire Dales at the end of the month.
What attracted me most to this bolt-hole was not so much its setting amid glorious countryside, or the prospect of tramping across moorland to a distant pub, but the word of caution offered by previous visitors.
“Please note,” they said, “there is no WiFi at this property or mobile phone coverage, unless you climb to the top of the nearest mountain.”
Yippee! A week without feeling the need to check my email for the handful of important messages that might be hidden in an avalanche of dross, spam and invitations to marry some nubile eastern European girl seeking to settle in London.
While you can always choose not to check your email while on holiday, how many of us have the willpower to ignore that tantalising whoosh or ping signalling the arrival of yet another message? Moreover, if you don’t go online to delete the superfluous emails (that is, most of them) you will spend the first day back at work emptying a bulging inbox.
So surely it wouldn’t do any harm just to have a quick peek while you’re away?
Well, actually it would, according to the German car giant Daimler. In an enlightened moment, the managers in Stuttgart have offered their 100,000 employees an app that automatically deletes all emails sent to their work accounts while they are on holiday. Alternatively, they can be forwarded to a colleague.
“Our employees should relax on holiday and not read work-related emails,” said Wilfried Porth, Daimler’s board member for human resources.
“With ‘Mail on Holiday’, they start back after the holidays with a clean desk. There is no traffic jam in their inbox. That is an emotional relief.”
Is it really? It is already possible to set up an automatic ‘Out of office’ email or to divert incoming messages. But how many of us would really have the nerve and self-confidence to delete the lot without ever seeing them?
What if there’s a lucrative job offer in there, or a free ticket to the Test match requiring an immediate RSVP? Or a must-reply missive from the boss, who will be outraged to discover that you are not permanently online?
This is supposed to make us less stressed? Indeed, so dependent have we become on electronic contact that most of us are incapable of leaving it behind.
In a survey last year, well over half of holidaymakers confessed to checking their inboxes or sending business emails while away. When asked why, most respondents said that their job required a high level of involvement (in other words, I’m indispensable), while others said they felt the need to demonstrate commitment (in other words, I’m terrified of getting fired). Daimler have assured those that do sign up to Mail on Holiday that their names will not be taken down and used as evidence of a lack of zeal. And pigs might fly.
Towards a more sensible work-life balance
The idea of a regular digital detox is catching on, though. The Germans have been in the vanguard, believing that it restores a more sensible work-life balance and helps avert employee “burn-out”. Volkswagen’s phone servers have stopped routing emails to employees’ BlackBerrys during the evenings. Bosses at Deutsche Telekom agreed to stop sending emails to staff during the evenings, weekends and holidays. Germany’s labour ministry, meanwhile, has also instructed its managers to stop emailing or calling staff out-of-hours except in an emergency.
In California’s Silicon Valley, digital detox camps have been set up allowing participants to surrender their cell phones and laptops in order to free themselves of technological tyranny. For those who can actually remember life before the World Wide Web and Google, that is anyone over 35, this should not be difficult.
Hard though it is for today’s youngsters to appreciate, it is possible to watch TV or listen to the radio without surfing the web at the same time. Better still, you could read a book, though strictly speaking, a Kindle should be included in the digital detox since it can connect to the internet.
Just remember to leave space in your luggage for the summer reads. Time was when a young backpacker heading off with a few books had a sure-fire way of meeting people by offering to swap them. You can’t do that with an e-book.
So, good for Daimler. It recognises that too many of us have become digiholics craving our next email hit, unable to look up from our phones or iPads even when the Med is lapping at our feet. I can’t wait to get up to that cottage in the Dales without any internet connection. Though doubtless after a day or two, I’ll be scrambling up the nearest mountain, desperately searching for a mobile signal.
— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2014
