One in four managers think it’s acceptable to call employees while they’re on holiday, according to new research commissioned by Virgin Atlantic.

The airline’s study of 2,000 employers revealed that staff who haven’t travelled to far-flung destinations are considered “fair game” for texts, phone calls and emails.

According to the survey, one in three managers believe staff should expect to be called while on holiday if they’ve failed to tie things up properly before leaving. More than one in ten think that employees provided with a company mobile phone should expect to receive calls when on leave.

Some 14% of managers have even telephoned a worker to reprimand them while they’re away on annual leave.

While 23% of adults believe they don’t get paid enough to have their holiday disturbed by an employer, the survey found that employees check their phone up to 12 times a day – although 80% said they do this more out of habit than necessity.