Work emails on holiday

[Holidaywotholiday]

AIBU to be a bit narked that my boss wants me to check work emails when I'm on holiday next month?

I'm away for 1 week, I don't hold a high position in the company, there are other people who can deal with enquiries.

No, you’re not. You’re on holiday and they can manage without you for a week. Say no.

Just say. You don't answer work emails when on holiday.

No further explanation required

No. Not at all. Is it your own personal inbox or a shared “enquiries” type inbox?

Say you want a break from technology maybe? That you will be turning your phone off to relax. How can they argue with that? Do they check their emails while on holiday? It’s not just checking emails, your boss must mean that if anything comes up they would like you to act on that otherwise what would be the point of reading them? So essentially, they are asking you to work or be ready to work at any point while you’re on your holiday. No way.

just say no. you are on holiday. simple

Well I like to spend 15 mins each day on holiday going through them, it makes the first day back at work much easier

Say you want a break from technology maybe?

why should the OP have to justify herself. She is on holiday. that is explanation enough.

How cheeky. Mind you I worked for a boss who wanted one of my ex colleague to check her emails and answer her phone while she was on her honeymoon! I will say sorry I can't, there are other people in the team that could reply to enquiries while I'm on holiday like I did with them while they were on theirs.

I would never expect someone to check their work emails when on holiday. Particularly a junior member of staff. Are you going away somewhere? Lets hope there's no wifi.

Ahahahahah (secondary school staff member here). Emails during holidays? no..... really?

Set up a redirect?

I check my emails every day on holiday, it’s expected really. I’ve done some form of work on pretty much every holiday I’ve been on. I don’t mind, I like to know what’s going on and as PP mentioned, it makes returning to work much easier.

That's a straight no. Can you put an out of office on the email and redirect them to whoever is covering your work. The problem is if you check you will need to action stuff and that might take a while so you are working anyway...

Ahahahahah (secondary school staff member here). Emails during holidays? no..... really?

I guess the OP might be someone with 20 days annual leave - not 3 months.

LOL

Such a quaint notion of holiday meaning holiday.

If the definition of holiday means not having to check email then I don’t think I have had a holiday in 15 years 😂

Just set up an out of office with forwarding instructions so anyone emailing you knows who to contact instead. Your boss just wants to know nothing is going to get missed. Which means either you check every couple of days and forward on manually, or set up an out of office. Either way it’s covered.

I do, but I'm remunerated enough to make it worth my while.

I absolutely wouldn't (and didn't) if I was junior.

Don't make up some crap about wanting a screen break or having no WiFi, that will come back to bite you if you have a staycation.

Just say no.

Tell boss you'll be in the mountains with no data reception.

In the UK, I have generally been expected to check emails on holiday. I lived in Australia for a few years and over there it is definitely not expected, in fact they see it as an opportunity for someone more junior to step in for a couple of weeks to see how they get on. Much better approach.

Where are you going? Can you just say you won’t have reliable access / signal / tech?

What a CF, the answer is a simple no. If he continues to push for it, I'd be taking advice from HR.

I don’t. I deliberately delete my work email account from my work mobile when I’m on holiday. I do take my work mobile with me though - so I can be contacted if absolutely necessary (I’m quite senior and earn a six-figure salary). I find people are less likely to disturb you if they actually have to talk to you. And suddenly realise that they can wait. Although my colleague and I cover for each other. I handled the urgent stuff for her while she was away, and now she is reciprocating. I’ve been on holiday for over a week - no work calls yet.

This makes me very glad that I work for a company where leave means exactly that!! No work stuff at all is expected and we get the first day back to catch up. However we also get someone to cover our area whilst we are on leave so everyone knows priority things don't get missed.

You can read them (once a day) but don't do any actions regarding them.

Do they supply you with a work phone?

Of course you may have a poor signal wherever you are...

I did once have a boss who told me that if I got promoted then I’d be senior enough to be disturbed while on holiday. I’ve been promoted twice since then, it still doesn’t happen (and he’s long since been made redundant).