The idea of vacation is to sit back, relax and rejuvenate, but vacations are not as restful as they used to be.

Vacation
Flickr User Tom Marshall
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In fact, a new Harris Interactive poll finds that more than half of American adults say that their bosses expect them to work during their vacations. Why? Technology makes it easy to stay connected.

"It used to be that people would carry two phones, one for business and one for personal use. Now, a lot of companies allow you to merge that. You carry one smartphone and you wind up being available a lot more more time than you used to be in the past," said Business Etiquette Expert Barbara Pachter, author of the upcoming book The Essentials of Business Etiquette.

According to the survey, 67 percent of the employed vacationers reported their family members get annoyed when they work on vacation.

"I think the way work is being done now, there is more of a sense of immediacy and urgency than there was before. People want to get things done as they are thinking about it and technology allows that to happen," said Pachter. "If you email people at night, they email back right away. It's just very easy to do."

Unless you are disciplined and put your phone down and stay away from emails, chances are, you will stay connected.

"If you're carrying one phone and you get personal emails, you're going to get work emails. How do you separate the two? Some people love being constantly in touch, but others find it very hard to have a normal life being constantly tethered to the workplace," said Pachter.

"It used to be that you emailed someone at night, they would get it in the morning. Now, they're up and respond right away."

On a positive note, about two-thirds of respondents said keeping up on email while they were away from the office made for an easier transition when they returned to work.

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