are you actually "out of office?"

[elocrates]

When you take vacation days or are "out of office," are you able to completely not associate with work or do you still check work email, answer questions, etc.?

When I am "out of office" I have to find coverage for all my stuff. Somebody always has to be available to cover. Sometimes it's more work to find somebody to cover (and I feel bad asking them to cover, because it does get to be a lot of extra work onto their already busy days) than to just cover my own stuff. Particularly when I'm still in town instead of away on a vacation or something. So today I'm "off" but still checking my files remotely and answering questions when need be. My colleagues tend to do the same.

What's the norm around here?

[Deleted]

I have no access to my work email away from work. I don't have a work cell. When I'm not here, I'm not here. I find that the same is true of my bosses - they don't work when they're not at work.

[arch01]

I think it completely depends on the job. I work in a time sensitive position, so, unless I'm out of the country, I'm not 100% out of office. I do get people to cover if I'm out more than a day, but I still do check emails and respond to urgent things that I know the other person won't have knowledge about.

[charlotteandwilbur]

I really do check out. I rarely (if ever) check email over the weekend, at night, or on vacation. Sometimes that means I miss lengthy email threads, and I feel a little worried about the implications for my career. But I try to make up for it by bringing my A game during working hours.

My brain really needs that time to decompress-- the few times I have stayed "on" for days or weeks at a time, I get depressed very quickly.

[Brie]

Yes. I'm actually not allowed to work remotely at all.

[ktw]

When I'm off, I rarely check in. But my position allows that, and I've set that precedent. I have coworkers who are constantly around even when they're off, and others who do the same as I do.

[dancingirl21]

I'm not fully out of office. I have my work email on my phone and there are certain things that only I can do, even though I have trained a backup. Random things come up that I haven't trained, and only I can do them. While I do check my mail when I am out, I only respond if it is urgent.

[brooklyn]

H is required to be on call for emergencies for most holidays (they rotate who is on call and are pretty good about not bothering you during your scheduled vacations. We didn't get bothered at all on our 3 week honeymoon)

[CrazyLucky]

When I'm off, I'm off. I love that about the job. The managers here all have business cell phones that are attached to their email and I would hate that. DH frustrates me because he *could* be completely disconnected, but he refuses to. One time when we were on vacation I sent him the definition of vacation, to his work address. He of course, got the email, and understood my point. Still does it though.

[Ashley&Scott]

I am completely unplugged when I'm not at work. I think there have been 2 or 3 times in the last 8 years that I've made work related calls from home. I don't have access to email when I'm out of the office. (I could set up remote access but haven't/won't, IMO I don't get paid enough for that & no one has asked me to do it. If I were the manager it would be expected of me.)

If our office is open there's always someone that can provide coverage. Our customers know that they need to call/email during regular business hours for something to be handled immediately.

[niq]

On days off? Yes. But I try not to schedule them when the team is under time pressure.

[VillainV]

Yep, usually. If I want to work from home I have to sign out a laptop....and that's a PITA so I don't do it often (like only if there's a big project due).

[SJ]

We are working on this now.

If I take a day here or there, I will still check my own emails and respond if/when necessary. I don't mind at all and it is easier that way.

If on vacation out of the country, I will have my emails forwarded to another team member (boss usually).

[Emerald1486]

It depends. If I take a "vacation" day for something like a dr appt then I will check emails sporadically. But if I'm on a legit vacation, such as our annual camping trip, I am inaccessible.

[shaynaatl]

I don't need to check-in when I am out of office. Then again, I'm just an analyst level with no direct reports.

[ilikedonuts]

DH still tries to keep up on emails and will answer some phone calls when we are on vacation. If he doesn't, he will come home to 3000+ emails after a week vacation and have god knows how many messages on his cell. He actually interviewed someone while we were at Disney last month. The guy met him at our hotel.

ETA: He has a team of people that report to him so while he does put one of them "in charge" he still feels responsible for them even while on vacation.

[andthentherewere10]

Nope. When I'm out, I'm still in. I'm ok with it.

[Deleted]

Yes I'm not really allowed to work on my days off.

[moopoint17]

I make it a point to try to check out completely. Sometimes it's easier then others. I get work emails on my personal phone but I usually only check it in if I'm taking more than a day off. If it's an emergency, then they'll call me, which happens in a blue moon.

[t]

I manage my entire department, so being totally "off" is challenging but I try my best. I do check into email occasionally (just to clean it out) and am available by phone, I haven't gotten a call yet.

[Deleted]

I am working on this, now that I'm back from ML. I am going to try not to check my email on T/Th when I am not at work, and I was good yesterday, but I don't know how long it will last. When on vacation, I would check my email every day, at least once and respond to the most pressing issues. No more, my time with DD is too precious to waste mental energy on work when I'm not there.

[turtlegirl]

It really depends on what is going on and where I am going.

If I'm literally traveling on vacation then I'm usually really off and try not to check emails or do any work.

But I only go into the office 3 days a week regularly and then "work from home" the other two days which really is just checking emails and doing any time sensitive things that might come up. I do this during naps time, after bed, etc.

I only work about 25-30 hours a week. But it's a small non profit, so we are all very flexible and wear a lot of hats.

[mlvmd]

My old job was worse but even at my new job I have a phone with email and am expected to stay on top of it. I am expecting not to check it for a few days while I'm in the hospital but expect the check it regularly for the rest of my maternity leave.

[Deleted]

Generally, yes. Occasionally I will still take a call or send an email or two. With a week of vacation, I might work 3 hours.

[jr009j]

DH never gets to really be out of the office. He answered emails while we were on safari in Africa for 2 weeks and has worked during naps every vacation we've gone on.

When I was working, I would check my email for anything easy to respond to but there was little I could do out of the office.

[sillygoosegirl]

I am really and truly unplugged right now because I'm on STD, and I understand that if I log in and start answering emails, the insurance company can say that means I'm recovered from childbirth and can stop paying.

Normally though, I'm still plugged in unless I travel somewhere without Internet or without electricity. This may be a big factor in why I find camping so relaxing.

[halfpint]

Yes, in my current position, which is awesome!

I'm a contractor, and paid hourly, so (1) they don't want to pay me to work any more than 40 hours, and (2) I really don't care enough to put in the extra effort

Were I to get hired here full time, I think there would be an element of checking email when I'm at home, and we do need to identify a back-up, but I have a coordinator that supports me and lots of peers that do essentially the same function, so it's not hard to have someone help when you're out.

[h]

I always check email and ending up dealing with work stuff a little bit on vacation. I did the same on maternity leave. But the upside is that I work remotely more or less exclusively so my regular work schedule is super flexible.
The only time since I started at my firm that I can recall not checking in for more than 24 hours was 8 years ago when we were on a Mediterranean cruise and had spotty email access.

[purplecow0206]

I rarely check email when it's not my "on" time unless I really need to. My definition of "need to" is I get a call/text from a colleague that has to be dealt with (my team has my cell phone for emergencies and when we're on site at Annual). I may do a very quick email check on Sunday just so there's nothing surprising me on Monday morning, but I likely won't.

I work from home once a week so I'll have my laptop here the entire time, but it'll stay in my bag unless it's an absolute emergency.

[leonard131]

I can't remember a time that I 100% checked out from work- maybe the day I gave birth to M :-). I have email on my phone, check it consistently and respond and am always accessible via phone when I am on leave even overseas because my phone has international service (the pitfall of working for an international company).

It is the nature of my job and the work I do. It doesn't really bother me except when people take advanatage of it and consitently bother me about things that don't need my immeidate attention while out. I also don't expect my staff to be accessible when they are on leave. To me they are 100% out of the office.