Having recently returned from my annual week-long vacation, I was struck by the diametrically opposed views on “disconnecting” during a vacation.
One side of the argument advocates a complete disconnect. Don’t check email or take a phone call. Your people need a break from you. You’re not indispensable.
At the other extreme, you wouldn’t know someone was on vacation. They are almost more engaged, perhaps fearing if they are “out of the loop” they’ll somehow lose their status or position.
On this vacation, my sense is I struck it about right.
My SmartPhone allowed me to read emails, and do triage on them. For example, this is:
|
Type |
Action |
|
One time, FYI, no need for follow up |
Delete |
|
Simple Question |
Quick Response |
|
Detailed Question |
Defer, or forward to someone else for action |
|
Project effort |
Save for return |
Project efforts are the biggest thing I avoided. One “vacation” I spent every day with my family, then every night writing job descriptions. Looking back, it wasn’t that much of a vacation, and how important could those job descriptions have been?
Having had vacations where technology just didn’t work, I will acknowledge a greater feeling of rejuvenation.
So in my mind, by keeping it light I was able to keep in the “flow” of what was happening, without weighing in on everything. Exchange dutifully sent out of office messages for me, so it was clear to anyone I was off. That said, mails were checked when convenient for me, I didn’t have a backlog of emails to go through….and walked in on Monday up to speed.
How do you balance it?