At what level of salary/responsibility is it reasonable to check/respond to emails on holiday?

Nope. Not in my sector. Nobody is expected to check emails outside of working hours or whilst on holiday, even The Big Cheese.

Edited as OP just posted update. No, people in my organisation earning over £100k aren’t expected to slog like you are.

What would happen if you didn’t do it? Have you tried?

I think this is true. I certainly used to work adhoc (checking emails etc) much more on holiday than I do now as I board level director. There is a company full of competent people who can manage perfectly well in my absence and so I only need to jump in now if someone calls me (which is rare, thankfully).

I have had to cancel some holiday time due to having to properly work. But in those cases I’ve still flown away with my family but based myself in the business centre of the hotel during the daytime. I never had to do that when I was more junior.

As for PP’s saying that the culture of working on holiday trickles down to the wider team, I don’t think that’s always true. I am very strict about all our employees taking proper holiday. Only board directors are expected to be available 24/7 as that’s what we’re remunerated for.

My DH had to take 2 weeks block leave once a year and he wasn’t allowed to log on. Other than that he’d check every day including weekends. He was an IT boss with 180 staff working all around the world.

I am middle management in an international bank with big salary. Never check emails on holidays. I work 9-5 and occasionally log on at weekend but if I send emails to my teams I always send delayed delivery so they receive it within working hours.

Nobody at my work would. Nor would my dh who earns six fix figures but is actually not particularly senior or important

at our employers the actual Executive Board probably keep an eye on emails when away, but nobody else including pretty well paid colleagues

I work for a US employer where the absolute expectation for even the lowest paid US based employee is that they’d be checking their emails. Not officially obviously.
They think we European based workers are a bunch of feckless wasters with too many vacation days! They actually have ‘unlimited’ PTO whereas we have a start of 30 days off, plus public holidays but as they’re all too scared to take anywhere near the same amount of time off the ‘unlimited’ aspect is pure bullcrap.

Never

I’m a senior manager but not Board level and earn 200k.

I never check emails on holiday but key people can WhatsApp me if there’s something urgent outside of working hours. I think I’ve received 2 such messages in the last decade.

Senior directors on 300k+ are expected to be more contactable.

Nobody on under 150k would ever be contacted outside of work hours. I think that’s fair.

@FancyCatSlave I totally agree with both your posts

I agree with this.

i don’t think it should be expected at any level. But anyone on below £70k should 100% NOT be checking emails on holiday.

I would say in a medium size company board of directors only. In a large company if you are head of a function for a large part of the company then yes to especially if MD, FD, head of HR, head of safety.

Theoretically a lot of things should be done a certain way. Reality is different for some, and for the truly unfortunate, it is a dreadful time. Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed and experienced some toxic environments across Ministerial (and DG) POs in the CS 🤷‍♂️

DH (125k, senior manager) doesn't keep an eye on emails on holiday. If it was an absolute emergency then someone would ring him, but he wouldn't be able to do much as he doesn't take his laptop on holiday.

No level or salary whatsoever.

if you died tomorrow, work would replace you.

I don't think there's a specific pay threshold, rather there is a company/team culture where this would happen and others where not.

I was recently on holiday and the person taking over my job didn't have a lot of experience. I told her to whatsapp me as needed if anything came up and that worst case scenario, I might not be able to answer immediately, but that she ought to feel free to message. I'd much rather take two minutes to deal with something on holiday, than two hours solving the inflated issue after I get back. Plus I like my job and I'm good at it so I don't mind.

My boss is currently on sick leave. We know she'd answer us if we really needed her, which ironically is probably also why we're keen not to bother her if we can at all avoid it. It's all give and take at the end of the day. If I'm needed while on holiday I'll go of course, and in return I know I can expect understanding and flexibility if I have to leave early because a kid is sick.

Definitely contextual. I’m a member of senior management, £55k and can both have a complete switch off (when I’m away on holiday) or check in on emails or be available for emergencies if I’m just off for a few days at home, as I will be next week. I choose to do the latter as it reduces the catch up once I’m back in the office.

Our MD has only ever been completely incommunicado after he’d had some major surgery, but that was all known in advance and the business owner took up the baton for emergencies and big decisions.

Meanwhile my Brother works in a very time sensitive responsible position and is very rarely completely ‘off’ but is compensated very handsomely for it.

But a good PO should have an out of hours PS/APS responsible for picking things up so they’re only responsible every one week in four, not all the time so it’s very different to what OP has suggested. And anyone in private office picking up emails on holiday is not very effective if I am honest. When I was PPS, I’d have definitely frowned on my PO team working on leave.

A DG, probably is available 24/7. At least mine and most good ones are. She has a private office which operates an on-call schedule between them and they try and protect her when she’s on leave, but she’s always available 24/7 because the buck stops with her.

I agree with those who are saying "it depends". When I was a Clinical Director I would delegate responsibilities to someone else when I went on holiday but if something really important happened whilst I was away I would have expected, and not minded, a phone call. So not "Dr X has rung in sick for tomorrow" - other people are more than capable of coping with that - but if there was something really major I'd want to know. There was a major incident once when I was on leave but not actually away so I went in for that and there were a couple of other occasions when I offered advice but generally if I was on holiday I left work behind.
I don't think organisations should be so dependent on any single person that they can't take a week off. I appreciate it can be difficult in small companies though. My DH is the only person in his company who does his specific job. Whilst he and a colleague in a similar field cross cover when they're on holiday there are still times when they have to call each other, though they do avoid it as much as possible.

Certainly not at just over minimum wage - but I was expected to jump and respond no matter what.

A holiday is just that a complete break from work. I used to insist DH left work phone at home when we went on holiday but it didn't stop a few text to his personal phone. A quick text yes or no I didn't mind but an hour on the phone I was mad about. I once threatened to throw his phone in the sea if he didn't switch it off on the beach.

I think it is almost always martyrdom- people want to feel they are needed and worry that if they can manage without them for a fortnight that it reflects badly on them.

It doesn’t. It shows you have developed a capable team.

I think there's more nuance here. My husband isn't a super high earner but he's senior and there are some things he does that aren't easily replaceable. So he will check in every few days if we are away. His manager has his personal info to contact him if something really urgent happens.

I'm much less important and there's nothing someone else can't do so I just turn it all off (though when I was recently away for 3 weeks I did plan a day to work in the middle just to avoid coming back to a mess)

I think there's an in between option that works for most situations.

If you don’t have good enough people to deputise then there is something very wrong with your org structure and succession planning. No-one should be a single point of failure and a good org should fully function with the absence of someone, however senior they are.

In my org we do not have a culture where people check email on leave. The only exception is if the business continuity plan is called in to action with something catastrophic. But not BAU.

I will check in on work emails perhaps twice on a week's holiday, but I always keep one summer week work free and Christmas. I get about 200K a year but have no management responsibility.