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.

What sort of jobs do people do that require this?

I turned my work phone off on Monday (after dealing with two things) as I was on leave. I'm tempted to turn it on and see what's been happening but will leave it until
Tuesday.

If you're senior you should lead by example and not do this. Everyone needs a break.

Someone I work with thinks she's indispensable and put convoluted out of office messages on every time she's out of the office and expects the same from her staff.

I laughed when my boss asked me the same OP.
I told him I was going on holiday to get away from work and not to bother asking again.
He never has.

It's be a hard no from me! None of the management where I work are expected to check emails while on leave, although I suspect one or two do it anyway. Even the MD is out of reach unless it's an absolute emergency in which case we'd call him obviously.

I went away for 3 weeks last year and even had myself removed as admin from the company social media pages so I didn't get the notifications every few minutes (granted I don't bother doing that for a week away).

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

So what?

Ah, I remember those corporate days - spending half a day writing a handover document before your two week holiday, then finding upon your return that neither the manager who demanded the document nor anyone else on your team even opened it (shared document system with a view/edit log) and that the people meant to cover for you ignored even the simplest of enquiries, in one case leaving a client out of pocket for thousands of pounds over a piece of information that would have taken 30 seconds to provide.

Now that I work for myself, my out of office email says 'I'm not accepting emails until , please get back in touch with me after that'.

It's acceptable to say that you will not be checking any emails and put an OOO so that anyone emailing can contact someone else.

That said, these are tough times and right now, I am doing everything I can to ensure I'm not the first one up for redundancy.

Nobody should be expected to check emails while they are on holiday. If they want to that’s different - but still a bit sad. If the organisation can’t cope when someone is away for a few days then they have a staffing/management problem.

No wonder virtual presenteeism is a thing.

That would be an absolute no from me. I would say I am reasonably senior but when I am off I am off.

I also refuse to have work emails on my phone. Everyone needs to switch off even if it is the evening or weekend, never mind holiday.

This has never impacted my performance, annual ratings or promotion opportunities

YANBU to be unhappy. A polite no should suffice. Should you be off to France (unlikely given quarantine), then of course you are only obeying French law.

I usually say I'm going somewhere with no mobile reception. Sets the expectation I will not be contactable.

Can't you set up a rule on you email account and get your emails forwarded to someone else? That's what we all do in our workplace.

My boss always phones his next in command on his days off, when he’s on holiday 🙄 they’re both a couple of tools to be honest but it’s not on is it

Teachers haven't had 3 months holiday

My dh has been in every day - through the Easter 'holiday', the May 'holiday' and now the last 4 weeks of the 'summer holiday'

The first two weeks of the 'summer holiday' he worked every day from home meeting students online trying to come to the school, delivering tech to students

And now at the last minute - literally last night the DFE have announced all teachers/staff and CHILDREN should wear masks - WHEN THEYRE STARTING BACK ON TUESDAY WHEN HIS SCHOOL DECIDED THEY COULDNT AFFORD MASKS TO GIVE THE CHILDREN - hundreds in LOW INCOME GROUPS

NOT ONE FUCKING PENNY HAS BEEN GIVEN TO SCHOOLS FOR MASKS, CLEANING, SANITISER

THEY WERE GIVEN 8, YES FUCKING 8 LAPTOPS FOR A SCHOOL WITH 1500 STUDENTS - A LOT OF WHOM HAVE NO TECH - they have had NOTHING education wise apart from SLT driving round delivering WORKSHEETS to children with no desk, no wi fi, living in the most appalling conditions

3 MONTHS HOLIDAY ?????!!!!!!???! MY ARSE

In my last workplace we were expected to have our OOO on, stating you were away and for how long and giving some alternative contact options in case of urgent queries. However I did notice that more and more people were checking their emails. The downside of technology - if you can you feel you should.

That would be a no from me. Do they expect you to literally just read the emails (in which case what is the point) or more likely actually respond?
I am relatively junior so most emails I get involve a request for me to then actually 'do' something, which obviously I'm not going to 'action' whilst on holiday. At my level there are very few emails which would just be a question requiring a simple answer that someone else couldn't equally provide the answer to in my absence. More senior people (and my boss is terrible for this, she always seems to send emails whilst on holiday/weekends/late at night which I hate as it doesn't exactly set the tone that it's fine not to do the same, albeit I try and resist!) I suppose feel that they are getting questions that only they can answer / they need to make the judgment call on and if it's a question requiring a 1 line response suppose doesn't take that long. But just one of the reasons I really dislike the culture of my workplace as there's so much presenteeism, politics, anxiety, people needing to display that they are indispensable etc etc which of course no one is....

I don't tend to but my husband checks his emails every other day or so because he doesn't like going back to nasty surprises.

Just came on to say I accidentally hit the YABU when I meant YANBU!!

I’m old enough to remember the days pre email, pre mobile phone. If you were on holiday, day off or sick you could not be contacted and that was that. I don’t think I had my boss’s home phone number. There was an emergency contact list but it was only meant for actual emergencies out of hours.

I would just say no, my work dont even text when on holiday unless i specifically say they can to get info i may need for first day back

Good post Laurie! I'm appalled that so many people have no idea about the conditions in some schools in deprived areas. And lack the imagination to know what restricting school life for some children is really all about.

And, op, of course YANBU. What a sad thing it is to read so many responses on here from people who are literally shackled to their jobs.

Many years ago, it was written in the staff handbook that staff had to give contact details for any period of annual leave. My boss instructed me to do the same as him - always state on the form "will be moving around with no contact possible". Can you not do similar - you've no wifi and no mobile phone coverage? Or - you have nowhere safe to leave the work phone when swimming etc so you will not be taking it?

My employer is very keen on work/life balance. Staff have actually been bollocked for replying to emails while on leave.

I don't work on Mondays, so the day before I go back I have a quick look to see what may need doing urgently, and make any of those things priority for when I start the following day.

When I was furloughed I was asked to keep an eye on my work emails, not to work, but in case there was anything I needed to see Covid related.

Just put the automatic Out of office reply. You shouldn’t be checking or being asked to check work emails whilst on holiday. My work insists we do this, plus there’s an email curfew from 5pm Friday to 5pm Sunday.