One in Three (36%) Employed Canadians Keep in Contact with Work When on Vacation

Toronto, ONTARIO - According to a new Ipsos-Reid study, conducted on behalf of Expedia.ca, one in three (36%) Canadian workers (64% of Canadians) report that when they are on vacation they still keep in touch with their office or work using methods such as accessing their work voicemail, email or by calling in for messages.

Of employed Canadians, six in ten (58%) say they use up all of their vacation in an average year, while 14% report using most of their vacation days. One in five (19%), report using only some (15%) or none (4%) of their vacation days in an average year. One in ten (9%) say they `do not get vacation days'.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of Expedia.ca between May 6th and May 8th, 2003. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001Census data.

One in three (36%) Canadian workers (64% of Canadians) report that when they are on vacation they still keep in touch with their office or work using methods such as accessing their work voicemail, email or by calling in for messages. The remaining two-thirds (64%) say they do not keep in touch with their work while away on vacation.

• Quebecers (76%) are the most likely to say they do not keep in touch with work while away on vacation.

• Employed men (44% versus 26% of women) are more likely to say they keep in touch, while employed women (74% versus 55% of men) are more likely to say they do not keep in touch with their work while on vacation.

• Employed Canadian from upper (43%) and lower (41%) income households are more likely than those from middle income households (24%) to say they do keep in touch with work while on vacation.

• Employed Canadians who possess a university degree (42%) or have some university or other post-secondary education (35%) are more likely than their counterparts without a high school diploma (19%) to say they would check in with their work while on vacation.

Of employed Canadians, six in ten (58%) say they use up all of their vacation in an average year, while 14% report using most of their vacation days. One in five (19%), report using only some (15%) or none (4%) of their vacation days in an average year. One in ten (9%) say they `do not get vacation days'.

• Regionally, Quebecers (66%) workers are more likely than are those in British Columbia (52%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (48%) or Alberta (46%) to say they usually use all of their vacation days in an average year.

• Middle aged (61%) and younger (59%) workers are more likely than older (46%) workers to indicate they use all of their vacation days in an average year.

• Employed Canadians in upper (18%) or middle (12%) income households are more likely than those in lower income households (2%) to say they use most of their vacation days, while employed Canadians from lower income households (12%) are more likely than their counterparts from middle (5%) or upper (1%) income households to say they use none of their vacation days in an average year.

• Of employed Canadians who do not use up all of their vacation days (33%), the average number of vacation days left over is approximately 8 (mean 8.03).

  Please open the attached PDF files to view the factum and detailed tables

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  For more information on this news release, please contact:
  John Wright
  Senior Vice-President
  Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
  (416) 324-2900