Work phone when on Annual Leave

[AndOnAndOn]

Can anyone share their experience/views with me please as they differ wildly in our house......

When on annual leave do you generally read/respond to work emails, What's App, text messages? Do you continue to keep an eye on work related social media, retweet, like posts etc?

Or when you are off you are off? Do you manage to put your out of office on and switch off from work completely?

I appreciate if you have one phone that is sued for both work and social it may be more tricky, how about if you have a separate work phone?

Thanks.

I think unless you earn over £100k you aren't getting paid enough to work through your holidays even to check emails so it should be turned off and not checked until you go back to work.

Work phone goes off and emails are not read. Out of office makes it clear who can make decisions in my absence and that their email will not be read by me.

I used to engage until I realised it made sod all difference. I'm a senior manager in public sector. Unless it has been agreed in advance that I am on call for the business continuity plan then I don't look at anything at all.

I used to be a complete martyr to the job then I developed a thicker skin and now I enjoy my time off. I do make sure I leave things in good order though and I do log in the day before I am back to catch up on essentials so I am up to speed.

Some people do need to feel important though and can't leave it alone!

My job is very much work, go home and forget so I do nothing work related either at home or on annual leave. Just put out of office on and go!

Self employed so check & answer emails on holiday and days off.

I keep mine off and just check the night before I go back. My dh spends his entire holiday, evenings, weekends on his it his work are awful and expect them to be available 24/7

I was on holiday last week. Switched my phone off on the Friday evening before hand and switched it back on this Monday morning just gone. If I couldn't switch off completely it wouldn't be a holiday for me.

My dh has a work phone. He leaves it to ring, or hangs up so it goes to answerphone. His company phone is one he uses for everything including personal and international calls.

Senior position. OOO on with a message to text if needed. I'll selectively chip in if it's a one liner and they're stuck.

It's illegal (sort of) in France -
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38479439

No way do I answer emails or the phone when I'm on leave! The out of office goes on, I put a temporary greeting on my phone telling people when I'll be back and who they can contact if it's urgent, and then I forget about work altogether.

I set my out office so that it doesn't even download emails until 8.30 on the day I'm back at work. My leave is too precious to waste on work stuff.

I only check now because I run my own business, but even then I have an out off office that explains and states to call if urgent so I probably check emails every other day.

Before when I was employed I never checked. If you're off you're off.

For one-off days off and for holidays in the UK I normally check at least once a day. When I went for a 2 week 'trip of a lifetime' type holiday a few years ago I switched my phone off (and told everyone that I was doing so). Having said that my MD and direct reports had my personal number so they could get hold of me in an emergency.

This is what I do too.

I run my own business so do check emails and messages etc when away and over the weekend. Nobody else to do it!

When I was employed though I would have just switched off and not thought about work until the day I returned.

I switch off my emails entirely, and spend the first couple of hours back after a significant absence going through them. Our CEO's rule is no contact - even for him, the rule is 'only call me if the press are at the door'.

My holiday time is for me and my family. I do nothing work-related as I'm not being paid to do so.

I switch it all off when on holiday but I might read stories about my work in the news just because I'm a nerd, not because anyone expects me yo

Depends if I’m pottering at home or away properly. If I’m home I might keep tabs on what’s going on at work but will completely switch off if I go away.

*to
Sounded a bit gangster then

Ill read my emails maybe, but won’t respond to anything outside the company, and only to immediate colleagues inside.

I don’t have a company mobile so no one can call. I do clear everything the day before i go back to work though in my own time.

I leave my work phone off and in the office during my annual leave. But I'm not in management and i cannot really imagine big emergencies that would occur that needed my immediate attention. Boas has my personal number if needed to contact.

It really depends on your role. I've never had a role where I'd turn everything off during AL because most of my roles were at Director level or including providing emergency comms/PR. Hence mobile always on. Everyone would know to contact me by mobile if urgent/an emergency so emails would have out-of-office on but I'd still check occasionally.

I used to have my work and personal phone as the same and would keep an eye on work while on leave.

I then left that job 2 years ago, totally and utterly burnt out. A shell of a woman whose stress levels were starting to make her ill and who was sleeping approx. 4 hrs a night. I loved that job and it paid very well, but it was changing me and my life into something dark and miserable.

I now put my work phone down at 6pm each evening, throughout the weekends and holidays. I sleep for 8 hours a night and am rarely ill. Other things have changed for me, not just the phone thing. But it helps a lot. Even despite this, I have really noticed how the excessive stress of my old job has had a long term alteration on how I handle stress - even slight worries now affect me a great deal. It's like I've been left with a sensitivity to stress.

It's just not worth it. You must protect your down time at all costs, because it is your chance to recover from the stress of work.

My out of office has a message saying that I won’t be checking emails regularly, so to text or call if I‘m needed urgently. Very rare for anyone to do that. I do sometimes check emails if I have a spare (but I mean properly spare, not at the expense of family time) , just because I quite like to avoid a big pile of mail on first day back, but nobody expects me to do this and I don’t reply to anything. To put this in context I have a fairly senior job in a client-facing organisation but I don’t work directly with clients myself.

The answer for OP is that it depends on their own circumstances!

Are you relatively senior and/or in a job that doesn't/can't get "handed over" and paid accordingly? If so, I'd expect you to keep an eye on things as necessary if only for your own sanity when you get back!

If you are in a more junior and/or team role where the jobs can be dished out to anyone, then not so much.

Unfortunately in my role there isn't anyone to cover me while I'm off, well not anyone that I would trust not to monumentally fuck up my projects (I'm a construction QS)

So I do have my laptop and phone on when I'm on hols, but my boss does reimburse me for my time spent working. I usually spend an hour in the evenings just catching up on emails and doing the bare minimum.

I couldn't think of anything worse than coming back to, say 2 weeks worth of emails and work. I feel much happier keeping on top of it while away