Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Leavism: the troubling truth behind the trend to keep working while on holiday

Leavism: the troubling truth behind the trend to keep working while on holiday

Overworked employees are using their annual leave to catch up on tasks they should have left behind at the office. And it isn’t just precarity and smartphones to blame
I can’t wait for my holiday,” a colleague told me. “I’m going to get so much work done!” At the time, I wasn’t shocked. Many professionals I know use their holidays as an opportunity to work. I have to admit that when I’m on holiday, I wake up early so I can do some sneaky work before the rest of the family appear and demand I “relax”.

Now this trend of working on holidays has been given a name: leavism. Prof Cary Cooper and his colleagues at Manchester University first identified leavism in 2014. They surveyed staff in a large UK police force during prolonged job cuts and found that more than one third of the officers had taken leave or holiday when they were sick or injured. Cooper soon realised that using annual leave instead of sick leave was part of a wider phenomenon where holidays became a time to work.

A follow-up study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in 2018 found that 72% of respondents had observed “leavism” and 37% reported people taking annual leave (rather than sick leave) when they were ill. More than 30% of those surveyed reported people took leave to catch up on work. An even more recent study found that up to half of employees surveyed were taking work home and claiming they were on holiday.

Cooper thinks employees take time off to work because our workplaces have become increasingly competitive and employees are overburdened. Working on holiday helps us keep up. Another reason is technology. The ubiquity of smartphones means work is constantly with us. Even when we are hiking in the mountains, a smartphone tethers us to what is happening in the office.

I think there are two other reasons we take holiday to work. First, most modern workplaces have become the last place where you can get work done. There are often so many pointless disruptions and distractions. Going on holiday becomes a desperate means of finding distraction-free time to work.

Another overlooked reason we take holidays to work is this: working is often more comfortable and easier than the rest of our lives. By hiding in our work when on holiday, we are able to ignore personal relationships, family dynamics and our own feelings. Working on holiday is a defence mechanism. It helps us avoid facing up to the troubling prospect that we might not have a life outside work.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×