There are those who cannot go on vacation. And those who leave only halfway.

A new concept, coming from Canada, arrives to mix genres between work and vacations: “tracances”. On paper, it is about using the new technical means and the new procedures put in place by companies to work remotely… in your vacation spot.

Clearly, the employee is telecommuting during the day, according to his usual schedule, and uses his free time to take advantage of his vacation spot, for example, following his partner. According to the firm Génie des places, 35% of those surveyed intended to switch to “trace” mode this summer.

On paper, the idea sounds appealing. In practice, it poses serious risks. Inevitably, for the employer, the fear is to see the productivity of the employees drop. And, for his part, the employee in trances may fear a multiplication of requests from managers, even outside his normal working hours.

“Everywhere, all the time?”

Because with the arrival of telecommuting, disconnection is increasingly difficult for many employees. According to a Glassdoor study (survey conducted on July 14, 2022 among 1,000 adults), 36% of French employees connect remotely to work during the holidays, even without being on leave.

Among them, 20% say they go online “because their employer sends them requests while they’re on vacation,” while 35% say they go online “for fear of losing information.”

In the middle of summer, this studio is concerned about the new working methods that may arise as a result of the pandemic. How to make the fashion of “tracances” not become a way of being available, everywhere, all the time?

right to disconnect

However, France was one of the first countries to vote for the “right to disconnect”, even if, in fact, the sanctions do not exist. And this blurring of the work/vacation boundary is already weighing on the mental health of employees. According to another Glassdoor study, in the last 12 months, the use of the term ‘burnout’ to describe their bad experience with a company has increased by 159%.

“While it’s difficult to determine whether practices around remote work are entirely to blame, one can imagine a correlation between the rapid and ‘no manuals’ adoption of these new work methods and the inability to truly unplug during break periods.” , underlines the study.