To not read work emails on holiday

[Atlastatlastatlast]

I'm off work for a few weeks and have no intention of reading work emails or switching on work phone until I go back to work at end Aug. A couple if friends are reacting as if this is a cardinal sin. Surely it's normal to forget about work when you're on leave or aibu?

Certainly normal for me..

I make sure i leave my work phone at home when I'm on holiday but i have colleagues who read and reply to each email from the beach not me

You are absolutely not being unreasonable. From the moment I leave work for a holiday till the day I come back I do not check my emails, I ignore messages from colleagues (about work) and I try not to think about it at all. The point of a holiday is to get away from work.

Unless you are a CEO/Partner/Director then of course you should switch off. And even those Ive listed should have deputies and only really hear if its an emergency.

YANBU.

YANBU, people need to stop doing this!

You never check them and find out that none of them were actually urgent.

Yanbu. Except in very limited circumstances I don’t think it should be done. My boss has my mobile number if there is an emergency

YANBU. I’ve turned my OOO off today, I’ve said I’ll check in once Sunday to do something (I offered to do this for a better outcome for myself, not out of a sense of duty) I will not look any other time until I’m actually working again and will ignore all work calls too. We all need a break.

YANBU. I don't usually look at any emails at all, work or otherwise. Unfortunately this year DS1 gets his exam results whilst we are abroad bad planning by me so I will have to log on as need to register him for Sixth Form (fingers x'd).

Just reminded me to turn off Slack!

In my area and nature of business we were forcered to have a 2 week break and it was audited to confirm we didn’t log on / check mails.

To be honest it was a breath of fresh air and made me relax on my hols. I’d always checked my mails etc before.

I felt really relaxed coming back from my hols. They can cope without me for 2 weeks.

Put on the autoresponder, put your feet up and knock back the mojitos.

Just mKe an automated reply saying when you'll be back.

Your head needs space to forget about work - it's healthy. I really feel it when I've had a weekend where I've been checking emails so I'm up to speed with everything, but not 'rested' vs a weekend where I haven't checked at all - I feel so much happier!!!

I’ve been guilty of checking emails in the past while on holiday, and always regret it as you can’t do much about whatever the situation is anyway from a distance, so just end up achieving nothing other than feeling stressed. I now get my partner to change my password for me while I’m on leave so I can’t look even if I’m tempted...sad, but I asked her to for my own good and it does help a lot.

Completely depends on how senior you are. Do you lead a team? Are you C-suite? Then yes, you should be answering your messages. If not no. You don't get paid for it.

YANBU

DH and I run a business together and our employees can ring us on our personal mobiles if anything desperate happens, but I leave my work mobile at work and put the auto-reply on my email.

I do the accounts so set up a payment run for all bills that are due, give them the company credit card for any emergencies and leave work at work for the week

DH usually rings in every couple of days but doesn’t take his work laptop or work phone

Our employees are perfectly capable and they’ve mostly been with us for years so we can trust them to run the place without us

We never get any time completely away from work so holidays are precious

It depends on your role. But unless you are very senior you should be able to completely switch off.

I think it's much easier to do this if you do a comprehensive holiday note so that the people covering your work know exactly what's going on and anybody you're doing work for is warned well in advance and knows who they need to deal with in your absence.

Prepare for your holiday by making sure others can cover for you properly. Then switch your work phone off and leave it in a drawer at home if you can.

I am not allowed to access my work email remotely, so HAVE to switch off from work while i am on leave. Fortunately or unfortuantely, most of my friends work in the same place, so i am always kept abreast of any gossip while i am away!

My work doesn't allow private access to emails because they're adamant employees need a work-life balance. There are very few exceptions to this rule in my workplace, and if you want to access your emails, get a work phone or work laptop for use outside of office hours, you must discuss it with them and ensure it won't impede on your work-life balance.

So no, I don't look at my emails when I'm not at work.

I second the idea of doing a very thorough handover, and setting an OOO that caters for all the eventualities you can think of. Then, switch off!