Congratulations, you’ve just paid thousands to work remotely…from your vacation spot. Your out of office is on, but your laptop is open. Sound familiar? I once prided myself on never missing an email, while on vacation. The result? Wasted vacations. Missed memories with my son. All for the illusion of being the “best employee.” When the furlough came, I was cut like everyone else. No medal for working around the clock. No prize for sacrificing beach time for screen time. Don’t repeat my mistake. Your PTO is sacred. Log off. Your kids are only little once. Toss that laptop in the pool. Sip that Margarita. We all need a break. Yes, even you. Your career will wait. Your life won’t. PS. Let’s normalize real time off. Has work ever invaded your vacation?
Love this post! I have been through similar experiences. I will never forget a time my parents flew from FL to CA to visit me while I was a paralegal and living in a one-bedroom apartment. I was doing a closing at work and literally was typing on the computer in the room they were sleeping in in the wee hours of the morning to meet an early-morning deadline. I used to blame work or the boss, but have come to realize that most of the work sacrifices I've made in the past were self-inflicted. If you hold the line on your boundaries, many bosses will respect that and work around it. But when you have spent years (decades!) putting your job above all else in your life, it's really hard to change that. But change that we must for our overall health and sanity!
100% and a side note for anyone who thinks they will get fired for not being "available" while you are supposed to be enjoying PTO: That shit is the definition of corporate abuse. If someone is off they should be off. It's not your fault that the company had a problem "only you could deal with" Tell your manager to do their job and fix the problem themselves. Boundaries will save your life. Letting them dwindle will make your life hell.
As a manager I value the team getting a break. I encourage that there is sufficient prep-time leading up to PTO and that there's a good hand-off transition. Then make sure external contacts know who has hands on their deliverables and where to go when they need help. This really helps cut the correspondence to whoever is taking time off so they aren't tempted to weigh-in. It also helps ensure that there's no cross-threading with two people responding to messages, one of whom may not be up to speed on what's been happening with a file.
Luke Hill
2w
Last week was my first vacation in six years that I didn't check emails, or texts from work... Nothing was on fire when I came back. Nobody died. No glass balls shattered. AND... I feel amazing. Energized... ready to take on the world.
I had a bit of a reality check when I read something like on average parents will spend more than 80% of their time with their kids by the time they turn 12 years old. I always try to prioritize that time. It’s so precious. You have your whole life to focus on your career but your kids, they grow fast and are eager to spend more time with their friends than with their parents. I already feel that and mine are still in elementary school. :(
When I’m off work, I ignore anything work-related but I do tell a tiny group of leaders and peers they can call me in an emergency. I screen the first call, but if they call a second time or leave a message and it does sound like a legitimate emergency, I will give them an hour or so on a phone call, but they would have to offer a reallllllly nice incentive to get me to fire up my laptop. Only once in my professional career did I get a call on vacation that was a legitimate crisis that needed to be resolved immediately, and I was able to walk them through a temporary fix that would suffice until I got back and could solve it permanently. I’ve also had previous employers and former colleagues contact me after I left, and that I won’t do, for any reason. I always felt bad because I know I’m the only one who bothered learning how to address these things, but at the end of the day, I don’t work for free. PTO means they are technically paying me, but if I don’t even work there, #sorrynotsorry
Andrea Kozek
2w
Too many times: a senior exec who decided his open schedule while driving to his vacation home was the time on Christmas Eve when we needed to speak about an upcoming event; weeks away. Or, the time my manager waited until the day before I was departing for a vacation to argue if I had the actual PTO to take...half a day off for said vacation. I learned I didn't want to be like that.
Marketing and Communications Professional
2wMy father died at 6:30 PM on a Thursday; at 6:30 AM the following morning, I arrived at the office to meet a "pressing" deadline that nobody else could handle. The deadline turned out to be completely arbitrary. That was not the day I realized that I needed better work-life balance. Two weeks later, I had foot surgery. My surgeon told me I needed to take 12 weeks out of the office. I took 10 days - and five of those days were weekends and a holiday Still grieving and now in physical pain, I decided it was time to start looking for a new employer. Loyalty kept me there. Five months later, I had an unplanned and invasive kidney surgery. I took two days off of work - one for the surgery, one to recover. I checked out of the hospital a day early so I could work from home on the third day (a Friday) and I returned to the office on Monday because there was a major event taking place that required my presence to run smoothly. Looking back, I have no idea how - or WHY - I did all that. Any career ladder that requires you to sacrifice your physical and mental health is not a ladder I want to climb.