PGi Finds 82% of Employees Choose to Stay Connected to the Office While on Vacation

ATLANTA, Aug. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- As Labor Day weekend approaches, many workers are preparing to get a final taste of summer with trips to the beach and barbeques with family and friends. However, the inaugural Workcation Nation Survey from PGi (NYSE: PGi), a global leader in virtual meetings for more than 20 years, found that 42 percent of U.S. employees choose to check in with the office once a day while on vacation, and 40 percent report checking in multiple times a day.

The findings illustrate a growing trend within the U.S. workforce, as only a small percentage of employees disconnect when on vacation. In fact, only 10 percent reported they "never" check in with the office, and another eight percent reported they were unable to take a vacation.

"The majority of today's workers stay connected while on vacation, and they want tools that allow them to effectively manage their work responsibilities and quickly return to their vacation," said Sean O'Brien, PGi executive vice president, Strategy & Communications. "Collaboration technologies like video and web conferencing allow people to easily connect with colleagues from the mobile devices they bring with them on vacation."

Smartphones (40 percent) are the most common device employees bring with them to stay connected to work, followed by laptops (11 percent) and tablets (4 percent). Hyper-connected employees are also common, with 37 percent of respondents reporting they bring a smartphone, laptop and tablet with them on vacation in order to check in with the office.

Tools built for mobile devices, such as PGi's iMeet® and GlobalMeet® apps, offer "workcationers" the freedom to work from anywhere. These tools are essential to the 65 percent of survey respondents who have joined or hosted a meeting from a mobile device while on vacation. Of those who have used a mobile device to host or join a meeting, 94 percent have dialed into a conference call, 92 percent have participated in a web conference and 80 percent have attended a video conference.

"The survey findings illustrate an increasingly accepted norm in which the lines between work and personal lives are blurring," said O'Brien. "It's indicative of a trend we're seeing in the market as 'work' becomes less about the place you go, but more closely aligned with getting the job done. As remote working continues to gain momentum, employees and employers will increasingly rely on technology that allows teams to effectively collaborate with each other no matter where they are."

About the Survey

PGi conducted an online survey of U.S.-based customers during June and July 2013, securing responses from 588 individuals.

About Premiere Global Services, Inc. │ PGi
PGi has been a global leader in virtual meetings for over 20 years. Our cloud-based solutions deliver multi-point, real-time virtual collaboration using video, voice, mobile, web streaming and file sharing technologies. PGi solutions are available via desktops, tablets and mobile devices, helping businesses worldwide be more productive, mobile and environmentally responsible. PGi has a global presence in 25 countries and an established base of over 40,000 enterprise customers, including 75% of the Fortune 100^™. In the last five years, we have hosted nearly one billion people from 137 countries in over 200 million virtual meetings. For more information, visit PGi at www.pgi.com.

Statements made in this press release, other than those concerning historical information, should be considered forward-looking and subject to various risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are made based on management's current expectations or beliefs as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management. A variety of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in Premiere Global Services, Inc.'s forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following factors: competitive pressures, including pricing pressures; technological changes and the development of alternatives to our services; market acceptance of our cloud-based, virtual meeting solutions, including our iMeet^® and GlobalMeet^® solutions; our ability to attract new customers and to retain and further penetrate our existing customers; our ability to establish and maintain strategic reseller relationships; risks associated with challenging global economic conditions; price increases from our telecommunications service providers; service interruptions and network downtime; technological obsolescence and our ability to upgrade our equipment or increase our network capacity; concerns regarding the security and privacy of our customer's confidential information; future write-downs of goodwill or other intangible assets; greater than anticipated tax and regulatory liabilities; restructuring and cost reduction initiatives and the market reaction thereto; our level of indebtedness; risks associated with acquisitions and divestitures; indemnification claims from the sale of our PGiSend business; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights, including possible adverse results of litigation or infringement claims; regulatory or legislative changes, including further government regulations applicable to traditional telecommunications service providers and data privacy; risks associated with international operations and market expansion, including fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; and other factors described from time to time in our press releases, reports and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the "Risk Factors" section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or a person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.  We do not undertake any obligation to update or to release publicly any revisions to forward looking statements contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release or the date of the statement, if a different date, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Media Contact:  
Blakely Thomas-Aguilar 
(404) 262-8429 
[email protected]

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SOURCE PGi

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