Workers tend to need a few days to properly wind down on holiday and completely log off, but for some a combination of sun, sea and spreadsheets has become the new normal.

WFH — not “working from home” but “working from holiday” — is rapidly on the rise, according to data from NatWest Premier, particularly among those on six-figure salaries, while it also found that almost half of Britons do not use their full holiday allowance.

The survey by the bank’s service for affluent customers found that even with their out-of-office email notification switched on, 42 per cent of the British population are still working while on holiday, rising to 66 per cent among those earning more than £100,000 a year.

• Whatever happened to the do-nothing, switch-off holiday?

Workers who earn between £15,000 and £100,000 a year and manage to get away for a seven-day holiday spend an average of two and a half of those days working. The research also found that those earning more than £100,000 are working for almost three days out of seven.

Just over a third of the more than 2,000 respondents to NatWest Premier’s study said they worked on holiday to stay on top of their workload and to reduce stress when they returned.

An increase in requests for holiday lets with reliable broadband has led Kip Hideaways, which offers “boutique” self-catering rentals, to launch a collection of properties named “work from anywhere”.

However, many workers do not have much of a chance to work from a holiday destination, with 45 per cent taking their full annual leave allowance, according to the survey. Only half of men and 61 per cent of women take all their annual leave.

Twenty-seven per cent workers said it was expensive, while a third of those on higher salaries blamed the fact that they did not have time to plan a holiday.

Laura Newman, head of financial planning at NatWest Premier, said: “You’ve got your annual leave allowance, want to take a holiday, but don’t know what help is available and have no time to plan it — logistically or financially — meaning it never gets booked and the much-needed R&R doesn’t happen. It can be a cycle and our latest research shows many are guilty of this.”

Newman said that many people did not realise that their banks were able to help with savings when it came to booking holidays, citing the travel benefits, planning advice and services they have available specifically for holiday planning.

Recent research by RSM, an accountancy firm, found that 33 per cent of organisations have responded to staffing challenges by allowing employees to work remotely outside the UK. The government, meanwhile, has committed to introducing a right to switch off as part of its package of workers’ rights.

The Times revealed on Monday that employees who take companies to employment tribunals could be awarded thousands of pounds more in compensation if they are constantly bothered outside of their working hours.

A code of practice is likely to be agreed by employers and employees, setting out expectations of normal working hours when staff should expect to be contacted.On Monday, No 10 said the aim was to ensure that the laws were “not inadvertently blurring the lines between work and home life”.

Although breaching an out-of-hours code of practice is unlikely to warrant litigation by itself, employees would be able to use it as an aggravating factor in a broader claim, improving their chances of winning the claim, as well as increasing their potential compensation.