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.

When I was working when you went on leave you put your out of office on. We had email buddies who checked your emails each day and they were dealt with accordingly depending how long you were going to be off.

@QueenBlueberries

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

Jesus wept, no wonder people speak of teachers the way they do.

I work in school and do indeed check emails over the holidays, not daily but just so I know what developments there have been over our very long break.

OP is away for one week of her precious 4/5 weeks' annual leave. Of course she shouldn't be checking emails.

I don't check email during the period I'm actually away on holiday and I don't know any teacher who does. The head is contactable in an emergency but you'd have to call her to get her attention, not send an email.

Angelfish
Ah good old mumsnet teacher bashing. How refreshing.

Holiday is holiday.
Just because I can check emails doesn't mean I am going to.

I am glad I work for a place that doesn't have the culture that it's clear some people have in their work place.

It depends what the job is, what the agreement on the job description is, and whether or not this is a new thing I suppose.

To be honest, even when very senior there is no need to check emails. I simply tell my teams that if something is urgent and cannot wait for me to get back, they need to text or call me. This very very rarely happens but of course if it does I deal with it. That then puts the decision whether to look at emails completely on me, sometimes I do sometimes I don’t (depends on the holiday and how much I need a break).

OP you are perfectly within your rights to say no to reading emails on holiday, and it is really inappropriate that pressure has been put on you otherwise.

(That said, if you aren’t going to look at them you need a meaningful out of office pointing people in the right direction, and a proper handover note so people know what to do if anything comes up - a lot of the time I can’t be bothered with both and so I check my emails once a day instead.)

Just tell your boss that you will not be doing any work on your holiday but that you will put on your 'Out of office' telling people who to contact in your absence. Otherwise, ask him who your emails should be redirected to and put a forwarding rule on to redirect them accordingly.

Cheeky blighter!

Ah good old mumsnet teacher bashing. How refreshing

It was a 'secondary school staff member' who inserted themselves into the discussion.

All depends on the type of job

Highly paid professional or manager roles where you have ongoing projects you can’t really hand over - it’s standard to keep an eye on your email, mostly nothing will come up that really needs your attention but sometimes it does. It’s part of why you get paid well.

Less well paid jobs where others can easily cover - nope I’d expect to be able to take my holiday and forget about work.

@LaurieFairyCake
Schools certainly can claim for associated cleaning costs. Someone at you school needs to be looking at government website

LaurieFairyCake I am so grateful for every minute that dedicated teachers like your husband and his colleagues devote to trying to educate young people in such difficult circumstances. It’s frikkin heroic the lengths that many teachers go to. I appreciate when this is highlighted on MN. I never want to start taking teachers for granted.

@QueenBlueberries

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

There’s always one.

OP, you’ll get a few martyrs who insist who should be but ignore them. Part of annual leave is switching off from work, you don’t need to be doing or thinking about work while away. The exceptions are those in senior leadership, but generally the world won’t grind to a halt if people have to wait a bit longer for a reply.

Secondary schools can claim up to £75k each for additional costs, such as cleaning, incurred due to this crisis. Although, agree, nothing to do with thread.

Unfortunately, I have one of those jobs where you need to do all the work you would normally doing during a break before you leave. Despite me earlier saying that I don't normally look at my emails while I am away, I did, and now need to sort a couple of problems urgently. Ugggh!

No you are definitely not being unreasonable. I sometimes do, but that’s my choice and there’s no expectation on me to. My boss once told me off for replying to emails on my day off (I’m part time), he did it in a nice way, but said I shouldn’t be working when I wasn’t being paid, and also he didn’t want the team to feel that it was the norm the answer emails when you weren’t meant to be working. It’s one of the reasons I love working for the company I work for. I work incredibly hard when I am there, and feel very loyal to them because of this.

@GreyGardens88

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

What's that got to do with the OP's question?

@thepeopleversuswork

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 😂

That's your choice or bad management. A holiday is a break from work.

Secondary schools can claim up to 75k towards cleaning etc

The truth of this is NOT THE ABOVE

No one has said to school "Here you go, we know you've got extra costs so here's £75k"

Instead a school has to be OVERDRAWN TO GET THIS MONEY, THEY HAVE TO HAVE NO RESERVES FOR EMERGENCIES, BE PRACTICALLY BANKRUPT TO GET THIS MONEY

Which fucking Head Teacher is going to do that to their school to get the 75k - the governors would fire them. Dh is SLT - he says reserve money is for when fucking shit goes wrong - and SHIT ALWAYS GOES WRONG

The governors have actually said NO to spending reserves

ITS MISMANAGEMENT TO SPEND YOUR RESERVES - ITS NOT FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE - ITS THERE FOR WHEN THE BOILER GOES WRONG OR THE WINDOWS GET PANNED IN

Where are the accountants on Mumsnet when you need them to explain fiscal responsibility

I'm not sure why you're shouting Laurie.

M SLT too and I've submitted the claim for our school. It's true schools with very large reserves can't claim (but they don't need to, they have reserves) but you really don't need to be overdrawn or running on fumes.

I haven't claimed the full £75k btw, we haven't spent anywhere near that much. Cleaning hours are very cheap!

And if you have earmarked reserves they would be excluded anyway.

Just say no.
I work part time and preset my out of office to switch back on at the end of MY working week, I do it the morning that I am first back.
I do say to my line manager to call or text if something REALLY urgent comes up on days I'm on annual leave or not working, but she hasn't yet.