Do you actually disconnect when on vacation?

[Anonymous]

Leaving for vacation tomorrow and was pondering this. I’ve been with my company for 10 years and don’t think I’ve ever fully disconnected just because I oversee so many things I don’t want things to fall through the cracks. I trust my staff but worry I’ll miss something critical. This is all the more true now that I’m in an even more senior role. But I know there are a lot of mental health benefits to actually letting go (though I think the anxiety of missing something will win out —- and yes I am already in therapy for anxiety lol).

So. Do you fully disconnect when on leave? As in, no email, no Teams, no Slack. Or do you still check those things and just not do actual work/meetings/etc.?

[Anonymous]

Yep. I don't take my work phone or laptop with me.

[Anonymous]

I disconnect entirely— don’t even text friends who are still working.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Disconnect. I didn’t even know what day of the week it was.

[Anonymous]

No. I wish I could but there is an expectation that I don’t.

[Anonymous]

Yes 100% disconnect.

DH is about 80%. Sometimes a bug will come up that other people can't fix and need him for. But he will check his work emails and slack to keep up on things. He used to be in a senior role and disconnected maybe 25% and was just so unhappy with that. His new job isn't management and is actually what he enjoys doing in the tech field, and he makes more.

[Anonymous]

Of course not. I have a job.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course not. I have a job.

Theoretically your job comes with PTO, no?

[Anonymous]

Fully disconnected from work while on vacation as I type this and I am a senior manager. It will be there when I get back. I am not so important that I am needed for all things (I try to delegate to capable team members while I am there so they know what to do when I am not there) and if something happened to me the workplace would go on (I have seen that happen before to others, it was jarring and sad but a stark reminder that we really should disconnect and enjoy time with family, friends, and ourselves).

[Anonymous]

I disconnect about 95%. Teams is on my cell, so I mute all the various group chats but still check any individual messages that come in. These are rare - we really try to respect our colleagues’ leave time - and I only reply if it’s a true emergency. I never check email.

[Anonymous]

I work ~20 hour/wk on vacation. We were on vacation in early July and I pulled out my computer for ~2 hours a day (at night after everyone else goes to bed), did 3 zoom interviews with job candidates, read/answered all emails/texts (when I had free time - not always immediately), and had a few calls/zooms with colleagues that they requested re: unexpected issues.

I request that the people who report to me do not work on vacation, and they generally don’t. But I found that if I don’t work on vacation then a sense of dread and panic starts to build because I come back to an absolutely overwhelming amount of work.

[Anonymous]

I’m at the airport coming back from a two week trip. Took my work phone to monitor email, but purposely didn’t take my work laptop. It seems to cause me more stress to not know what kind of workload I’ll have when I get back. I’m able to delegate my role, but still chime in if something comes up. No more than 10-15 minutes a day is necessary.

[Anonymous]

I generally skim email once in a while to keep a pulse on things, but our company is pretty good about respecting people's PTO and my team and bosses knows how to get me if they need me for something, so I can mostly unplug. I realized on my last trip that I need to mute Teams on my phone or else I get a bunch of pings (from meetings/groups) that stress me out.

[Anonymous]

I fully disconnect but I’m only a lowly paid GS14. I am on call if things hit the fan in certain specific ways, but other than that I ignore my burgeoning email folder.