Afternoon:
10°c
From my sun-lounger at the Mark Warner complex at San Agostino in the Peloponnese, these past two weeks, I noticed a fundamental change from the previous occasion I went on one of their holidays. Hardly anybody was on their mobile. Nobody was hunched over a BlackBerry. The resort's internet facility was eerily quiet, too.
A few years ago, in Lakitira on Kos, it was very different. Then, you couldn't read for the City types walking around barking into their Nokias. Likewise, whenever you looked up, there was always someone squinting at their hand-held.
This time, others also noticed the change. Either, we agreed, there is no work this summer or people really have decided to leave the office behind.
Coming home, I find it is the latter. The latest Lawyer magazine reports that Linklaters, the leading City law firm, has ordered its partners and associates to leave their BlackBerrys behind when they go on holiday this year.
Whether they will comply with the edict, which it is claimed is intended to improve their work-life balance, remains to be seen. One partner has already said he fears being incommunicado while on a major deal, and a colleague complains of feeling "a little naked without my BlackBerry".
In the City, too, where the long working hours of lawyers at firms such as Linklaters are legendary, the idea of them bidding farewell to their regular fix is regarded as laughable.
I suspect it goes further than a desire to enhance the work-life balance. In San Agostino, there was a clear absence of anyone even venturing to discuss their work. On past holidays in the Med, I've heard people loudly discussing the deals they've done and proudly declaring which bank they belong to. Not now. When I asked my neighbour where he worked, he looked embarrassed. "For a financial institution," he said. When I prised it out of him, my reaction was the one he was presumably dreading. "I'm sorry," I said.
Some things, though, never change. The hottest topic of conversation wasn't the epic Wimbledon final or the Sats fiasco. It definitely was not the state of the economy or the markets. And for once, London property prices were off the agenda. No, it was the way fellow guests went to extraordinary lengths to bag sun-loungers before breakfast.
There was even an incident where someone took another's towel and dumped it outside the pool area. And there wasn't a German in sight.
