Who can totally leave their jobs when on vacation?

I have no need or desire to check into work, email, voicemail, etc when on vacation BUT I kind of have a catch 22. You see I work for my parents, who like me to call them so they know I'm OK and when I do they will ask me questions about work!

Utahtea

Me me me!!!!

My husband and I travel frequently to the Caribbean.

We both have high stress jobs, and when we took those jobs, it was with our employer's having the clear understanding that we would be taking two two week trips per year, and that we would NOT be available in any way, shape or form during those trips.

In fact, we have a rule that we watch no TV, read no news of anything at any time from the time we leave the house for the airport to the time we get home, and we prefer resorts with no phones and no TV's.

I'm sure it helps that we have no children to keep tabs on.

Our vacations are sacred to us, and having to be on call or to check voice mail is not a true vacation to us...

Once I leave the office to go on vacation, I never check email or voicemails - but it's not necessary for me to have to do so while on vacation.

My ex-husband always had the compulsion to check on his workplace while we were on vacation (even when he didn't have to) - but he actually had to speak to someone to see how everything was going. He would do this at least every other day, and converse up to 30 minutes at a time. Most of these conversations were not necessary and were of the office gossip variety. One of the reasons he's my ex.

The worst was when we were on a cruise - he called from our cabin while we were in the middle of the Caribbean. I almost hit the ceiling when that bill came in.

Obviously the answers should be vastly different if you are the owner or total "boss" of a business as opposed to being a worker.
I had my own small business. The first time I went away my one full time employee was in charge. She drove me nuts calling every half hour all day long telling me about everything, even things there was nothing I could do about since I wasn't there.
Later I hired a new girl. Vicki was wonderful and handled everything. Once she took over, I could literally leave for two weeks and never call her or hear from her. Sometimes when I got back I'd later hear about major problems that had taken place but I never even knew about them since she just took care of them. She was well paid, particularly in bonuses. In fact if she hadn't gotten married and moved out of state, I probably wouldn't have been so quick to retire.

Whenever I hear about a "boss" spending all his time on the phone and doing constant business while on vacation, I always want to go up to him and tell him he needs to look for new employees. Why do people hire employees whom they can't trust to make daily decisions?

I leave it all behind - and have no desire or need to contact the office. Unless its nuclear holocaust - who cares - and if it is - what can I do anyway?

That said, I do leave contact info with my admin - only to be used in a super emergency (it is a relatively small company - and if someone has to be hosptalized or ? I might have to return).. So far she's been great about deflecting those people who wanted it - even the president of the company - by reminding them there's nothing I can really do to help from London (or wherever).

I guess I am a bit unique.
I travel all the time, for work.
I generally extend my trips to include the weekend before or after so I can enjoy myself a little.
I always have my laptop and I almost always log in to check for urgent issues. I usually don't respond if it's not urgent.
I don't really go out at night, so my work is often better than TV.
Another thing is that I work in the travel industry, specifically hotels... so I am sort of "on" the minute I step into a hotel, working or not.
It's hardest NOT to critique everything from the check-in to the room quality to the general security of the property, etc...
Now I take off almost the entire month of December and stay at home vsisting family. I DO NOT work everyday during this annual R&R.

We escape! I used to work in management and found my mind would drift from time to time to my resonsibilities but after changing I no longer have those worries, not only while on vacation but at home as well.

I used to work in advertising, which is a business where things can hit the fan pretty fast-- but I was really good about leaving it behind when I was on vacation. You just have to get away from work, or it's a waste of good vacation time, IMO. I'd check messages before going into the office again, just for a heads up. Otherwise I figured it could wait.
An exception to my rule is that I do have a rental property that my husband and I own, I manage it. I do give our tenants the phone where we can be reached in case of a DIRE emergency, like a tornado takes off the roof or the furnace quits or something...

Absolutely! I don't even want to tell people what I do so I don't have to talk/think about it.
I used to have a job where the secretary wanted to know how to reach me so that my boss could in touch with me (he had me doing a lot of his work). And I got called on vacation! Grrr! Needless to say, I don't work there anymore.

My husband can usually leave his job and not check voicemail or e-mail. He deals with political types, so sometimes he does have to make sure things are running smoothly if a bill is about to be pushed through or individuals need certain numbers.

I agree with Patrick that good employees are the answer. It sure made the difference for my dh!

As for me, I'm a SAHM, and since we bring our son along on all vacations, I guess technically I don't leave all my *work* behind. I consider taking care of my son great fun, though. However, I do have a hard time disconnecting from the phone and my computer during my first days of vacation.

My next major vacation is this December. Woo-hoo! Can't wait.

MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMMEMEMEMEMEMEM

Heck yes! DH & I do NOT call or check voicemails when on vacation. I don't even like to hear from co-worker friends calling to chat. Want to leave work at work until I return. Can't imagine work calling me while out of town. I would be livid!!!

As a teacher I get to leave my job for 2.5 months. I don't even think about it for most of that time.

Neither hubby nor I have ever felt the compulsion to let our jobs interfere with a good vacation!

Connectivity and Vacation are mutually exclusive.

This is a hot-button topic in our household. This summer, DH spent the first four days of our summer vacation working about 10 hours a day. We flew into LA, he handed me the keys to the rental car and went to work. We were taking the kids up the CA coast; DH had been there, done that and he had a deadline. When we finally got to San Francisco he drove the front desk nuts firing 20 page faxes back and forth; I'm not kidding, I think they HATED him!!! I wasn't very happy with him either!! We were going on to HI and shipped home our heavier clothes AND his files!

Not only do I totally leave my job behind, my vacation destinations are such that I could hardly stay in touch even if I wanted to. Next trip is to Cat Island in the Bahamas: no phones in the rooms, no internet cafes, no cell phone service, and most definitely the Blackberry and Treo are out of commission. (Even if I am not THAT out of touch, I treat it as if I am.)

I do work in a high-stress position, but also have great colleagues who can take things over when I am away (as I do for them). I warn my clients weeks in advance that I am going to be out of touch, giving them a chance to raise whatever business they have before I leave. It works very well -- most of their "emergencies" can be handled by my AA or my partners, or turn out not to be emergencies after all -- since they wait til I come back.

Never, my life isn't my work. More people should put work in perspective to having free time, free time is way more important than work. I've learned you don't get any brownie points by working while on vacation.

Since no one in the world is irreplaceable, there's really no point in checking in while on vacation. Relax. Other people can handle things just as well as you can. Unless, of course, you are my mother.

We TOTALLY leave our work behind when we vacation.

We "work to live" and NOT "live to work."

I also resist staying at any hotel that is more business oriented than tourist oriented. I hate being reminded of work when i see a group of suits at a corporate meeting! Thats another reason why moderate - budget lodging works so well for us on our cross country trips.

When I was 29 and a VP at one of the countries largest investment banks, I would have never even considered going on vacation without keeping close tabs on the office. However, like many in the business you either buy into the life and "drink the Kool-Aid" or you wake up one day and have an epiphany that the money isn't worth it or that you really are replaceable and all the sacrifice means nada when it's a bad year for debt underwriting.

So, now at 39, I have no problems with being on vacation and not checking in. In fact, not checking is in encouraged as the 100 of us at my firm have all reached that point where we collectively realize that balance between home/career is a far saner corporate mandate.

While I love my job, it is what I do for 40 hours a week to earn money to finance the part of my life that matters!

Ellen, isn't it funny how we differ? I really sort of enjoy staying at a place where some business group is meeting or working. It helps me gloat that the rest of the world is working and I'm playing! So nice to walk by them on my way out to enjoy the day!

We have owned our own biz for 13 years now and each trip is easier and easier to be away from it as we hire better people to "pinch hit" for us while we are gone, but I've learned to let my husband make his occasional calls back to his employees to check in just for his peace of mind. I used to fight it vigorously but it makes him more relaxed so now I just go with it. We are fortunate to escape the stresses of it several times a year, so the tradeoff of occasional phone calls back to the biz is worth it.

I tend to be a very loyal employee and it took me a few years of travel to learn to leave the office behind and realize that the company will not stop functioning just because I am gone for a week or two.

I used to call in about twice per week no matter where in the world I was, but I have now learned that if I leave detailed instrutions behind, there is no reason why I should worry myself with what is going on at work when I am vacationing. After all, would there REALLY be anything I could do to fix any problems without actually being there?

So, yes, I am totally able to leave my job behind when I am on vacation.

When I go on leave the office for vacation or business, I leave a message stating I will not be checking messages. I had a client call wanting to know why I wasn't checking my messages while away. My co-worker had to tell her I was in China on business. She also explained since there was a 12 hour time difference, when would I find the time to call her when I'm inspecting hotels all day until 5pm and on whose dime? Sheesh!

This topic reminds of every winter when we get a good storm and the governor announces "Only essential employees must report". While I think health and safety workers and plow drivers are essential, I crack up at some of the people who view themselves that way. I place myself firmly in the non-essential group until the toilet paper or pet food runs out.

As my former boss once pointed out to a workaholic colleague (obviously not me): We are not brain surgeons. No life hangs in the balance if an editor, accountant, sales person, PR exec, CEO, real estate agent, programmer, project manager, engineer, etc. doesn't check their e-mail for a week or two.

Luckily, I have changed positions so that I can be gone for up to 9 or 10 days. As chicgal stated well, you need to be considerate of others who are taking burdens upon themselves also.
But I never check in on vacation, and have been a little peeved that some years past they called me when I was out west (Arizona) for something that was not timely.

Having said that, I do understand, as I have been a small business owner, that in many business situations- if you "leave" your small business behind and vacation- you won't have a small business to come back to. We could not leave a family owned and operated business for years after its start.

It is not just a matter of being obsessive or compulsive- in some fields it is a necessity. But like Ryan says, sometimes you make moves, or expand the resources, or whatever to change the company/ personal balance.

Lots of entrepreneurs give up their family lives over this issue. I can remember one who spend all day at WDW on cell phone in EPCOT's Japanese restaurant while his son was on the rides and didn't get to experience any of that "with" him. It wasn't that unusual. Now that same man can take vacations for a month without calling, but he can do that now, because he did the opposite then.

Swoosh -- I'm gone. I can totally leave my job, but (unfortunately) sometimes I take the emotional baggage that comes with it. I think I've called in twice while gone: once to ask about a co-worker who had been in a car accident just before I left, and once to tell the secretary that we were going to test sending a fax from my MIL's computer.

I leave my job when I'm at work, so vacation is not a problem. (0:

LOL Kajebu - Obviously many of us are that way... We are HERE aren't we, while at work?

As the sole employee of a small firm I have an unwritten agreement with my boss: I do my best not to contact him during his annual, month-long Alaskan fishing trip; he tries never to call me on any of my four, nine-day trips.

It's worked out great for five years and I'm never expected to conduct any business while I'm away (don't even check emails).

AL

I try and vacation in places that are far from phones & internet so I feel NO obligation to check in at work. Not that I would anyway. I found that Peru had surprisingly good internet access and stupidly checked my work email from there. Never again.

Shoot - I can totally leave my job over a weekend. A vacation is a piece of cake!!

I'm probably in the minority here - I do check my e-mails, and I stay in touch with a colleague/friend to see what's going on. I work in a psychiatric outpatient clinic and somebody has to look after my caseload when I'm away; frequently co-workers have questions or feel more comfortable if they can talk something over with me. It never takes long and never seems to interfere with anything, and in fact I feel better being available than coming back to find that something avoidable has gone wrong.

I used to think I "needed" to stay plugged in. A downsizing cured me of that! Now, work is work and play is play. Work hard, but leave it behind on vacation!

Hi everybody! I'm the original poster and just wanted to thank everybody for their thoughts and experiences!

I work for a large hi-tech corporation and unfortunately am the only one in my department that "knows" my job (my job isn't cross-trained because nobody wants to learn it or do it - it's all financial/procurement/contract work and folks in my dept. don't "like that stuff")...so unfortunately I can't depend on a co-worker (or manager) to fill-in while I'm away to do some of those things that require immediate attention. Some of the "immediate attention" things are stuff like electronic approvals and/or sending documents/information from my hard-drive to somebody making a business critial decision. The way our networks are set up at work I can't allow somebody else into my computer to approve things since it's all via digital badge etc.

Ultimately, I think the reason I primarily check in and do email/vm once a day is so that I don't have to come back to 1,000+ email messages (I average about 100 per day). I figure if I can get the quick and dirty stuff out of my email then I can enjoy the rest of my day and be content knowing I won't be coming back to work with a huge load of action items to wade through. I guess it's a small "peace of mind" I give myself knowing that I can come back into work and get started right away w/o having to take a couple full days going through email/vm.

I have an up-coming vacation planned in November for 2 weeks. After reading all of your comments I am seriously considering leaving the laptop at home...trying to figure out if I can be content for 2 weeks not checking anything, or if I will be so anxious that I won't be able to enjoy myself knowing that when I come back it'll be really stressful.

Thanks again for all your stories!

Cheers!

If you get 100 e-mails each day, you have a very stressful job! I'd say whatever coping mechanisms work for you, that's your solution. I understand how it could make you feel less stressed and more relaxed on vacation to check your messages daily and deal with the 'quick and dirty' stuff. Then you won't be over-whelmed when you return to work. It's great you're taking the two weeks off-- have a wonderful time.

Well, I'd say about 10-15% of those 100+ emails are spam, so those are easy to delete - thank goodness.

Thornphoenix,
My sympathies. Being on vacation should really mean just that - being on vacation and away from the call of the office.

I have to say, it seems pretty irresponsible of your boss to not have a backup plan in place. Whether someone wants to learn or job or not, shouldn't be his concern. The fact that the unexpected happens should be their concern.

But I digress, this is a travel forum and not a Organizational Behavior forum, afterall.

I absolutely agree Ryan (about not having a back-up plan in place). As much as I would like to cross-train one of my co-workers, I can't exactly make them learn my roles/responsiblities unless my manager is backing me up on that. Needless to say, I often say to various co-workers, "Just in case I get run over by a bus or something....here is something you need to be aware of" and I'll tell or show them something that is essential for somebody else on my team to know besides myself. I totally, completely agree that every person is replaceable in a job, and I also believe that a manager could make that replacement/transition so much easier if there were others cross-trained to take on various roles...funny, I know a lot of my co-workers roles/responsibilities because I use to do some of their jobs.

Anyway, no biggie. Overall, the purpose of this thread was to just find out if my actions of checking email/vm while on vacation was atypical...I would say from the majority of responses on this thread that my actions are atypical, which gives me food for thought and consideration of just leaving the laptop home during my next trip.

There used to be a time, early on, when DH would receive phone/conference calls while on vacation - it would drive me insane and we would fight while ON vacation which was even insaner! That has now stopped. In his particular profession he is lucky to string together a complete week of vacation time (if we are extremely lucky, 10 days - Hawaii would be a stretch for us), so no interruptions unless it is absolutely urgent (and even then there are competent professionals who can handle the situation in his place). Life is too short.

topping

This is why we go to Europe where my husband can't be easily reached. Only when we are there does he really relax. On our trips in the US he gets work calls way too often.

I wish I didn't take it with me but I do. I keep my phone turned off most of the time but do check voicemail and email each day. It just takes too long to catch up otherwise. I went on a cruise a year or so ago and decided to completely unplug. Two days after I returned I was still going through emails and felt like I needed another vacation!

I have absolutely no work ethic. i have an european state of mind, wish there was a 30 hour work week with a 3 day weekend. Don't get why work is so important to people, it like defines their whole being. How silly.

I leave my work when I close the door to my car in the office parking lot. I remove my security badge, toss it in the cup holder and I don't think about the job until I have to go back - whether it's the next day, the next week or if I'm really lucky the next month! (That usually means that half the month has passed and I have a two week vacation)

When I am gone, I am gone, that includes when I walk out the door @ 5pm every night. No way work is going to interfere w/the 3 or 4 hours I get w/my children every night. If you have trouble leaving it behind...I can let you in on a few places where you don't any choice but, to leave it behind...A job is only 'high stress' if you let it be...As a 'boss' I have trained my folks to take care of things, as I am frequently out traveling for work as well. I am also fortunate in that I have a staff that have been through a lot w/me (good & bad) the last 10 years. That helps. However, there are a ton of people out there that don't trust anyone, to do anything, for them...you have to learn to delegate...

When I leave my office for a vacation I leave very specific instructions that the office should notify me immediately if the building burns down or if there is any other similar type catastrophe. Otherwise, I am to be left alone.
The last thing I want to do when on vacation is to be involved in all the things that cause the stress that require me to need time off in the first place. For me the key word when vacationing is "Relax".

Job? !

We are heading into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness by canoe over the 4th of July. No phones..no computers...no ELECTRICITY!!...just quality time with some pine trees, some loons and my DH and daughters. I cannot wait. the BEST vacations are truly w/o interrruption, IMHO.

I work at a women's abuse shelter and it's really high stress so when I go away I GO AWAY! But my husband has a harder time with that or even getting him to go. Although once he goes he loves it. I figure if that company is going to go to ruin while he's gone he should be making alot more money.

Well, a few might agree that ole' G.W. qualifies, but that one is too easy.

When I'm at work I do my job well. For that reason when I leave on vacation I do not check it and do not leave any forwarding numbers. No one is indispensible (including me).

When I go on vacation, I leave our beach house phone number and usually get one call about some matter or another from my workplace. Small price. When on vacation, I think it should be a time to leave troubles behind and relax. In fact, I watch almost no news when on vacation. Even after Ronald Reagan's death a couple of summers ago while I was on vacation, I watched next to nothing on TV. I think Reagan would have approved. Good times at the beach before a funeral.

I try. I find that it helps if I rent a cabin without a phone. I don't take my laptop, EVER, ANYWHERE. But, I must admit, if I am in a city and there is an internet cafe, I often stop and check my emails. I think of it less as worrying about the job as quickly cleaning up a few items, so I'm not swamped and stressed when I first get back. You can often solve a number of problems with a few strokes of the keyboard.

I also go through my voicemail messages the evening before I go back to work. Again, a voice mail response to many messages is all a person needs and then I'm ahead of the game the following morning.

I hate coming back to 100 emails and a full voice mail box. I really cut down on the surprises when I get back by taking care of things easily while I'm gone. Because you know there will be 10 people "waiting for you to get back" before you even get that first cup of coffee.

The best way that I enjoy my trip is a make a slideshow of my trip and keep it on my work computer. Only my last trip, no other ones. When I get really stressed, I sit back, sip that coffee and relive a few of the places I saw.

I replied to this initially so why not again? In a word YES! In fact I look forward to being awy on vacation because I know I can leave it all behind. Besides vacation are there other activities where you can escape to, at least for a short while? for me its when I exercise and when I'm on the golf course. .