To not take my work laptop on holiday?

[Justathrowawaycomment]

I have a relatively intense job - but - it's NOT a life saving type of job - it's in tech.

It is a US-based firm, and I report into a US-based leader. They don't really 'do' annual leave, as in, they take their PTO (Paid Time Off) but still dial into calls, and and...well, work, basically.

DH, DD and I go on a week's holiday (abroad) tomorrow morning.

My gut tells me to take my work laptop - so I have access to work/files if I need them.

My brain tells me that taking my work mobile (with access to email + Microsoft Teams) is enough.

When I ask myself "what could go wrong?" - it's nothing major, nothing that will cost us money, or be embarrassing for the company, but it might be inconvenient for my leadership team if they want access to something I can't provide from holiday.

I can't really pre-provide them with access to everything they 'might' need as there is a LOT of stuff, and some of it is quite sensitive, especially without context.

So AIBU to not take my (stupidly heavy) work laptop...? I think I just need reassurance that I'm not being unreasonable, more than anything.

Also isn't literally the whole thing of Sharepont that the whole team can access a document and don't need to wait for someone to grant access to it whilst they are on leave?

When I have gone on leave before I have tagged people up in a sharepont doc so they are alerted by email where I want them to comment, review or add content. Then when I get back I can see from my email alerts what they have done and when they did it.

The joys of technology!

I'm pretty sure I'd never hire you due to your workshy nature.

I appreciate there's an element of tit-for-tat insults going on here because you're probably feeling a bit 'got at' but joking apart - if you genuinely think someone is "workshy" for wanting to prioritise their family and their wellbeing for two weeks out of 52, you have really skewed priorities on life and you're heading for burnout at some stage.

Look up one of the many research papers that prove employees who take holidays and switch off from work are more productive when at work and more likely to achieve promotions, if you don't want to take my word for it.

Are you leaving the country? Has the company arranged a work permit for you to conduct their business outside of the UK? There are tax and visa considerations which ok, people have ignored for years, but caused all manner of problems in the pandemic

Chap in the next office to me dropped down dead in his kitchen at 42 in front of his 9 year old daughter. You need to let your staff take proper holidays. This manic presenteeism is surely counterproductive anyway. Anecdotally Gen Z are massively reacting against this type of ridiculous live to work lifestyle btw so you might need to update yourself.

Under no circumstances do you take your laptop! America has an awful attitude towards holiday, basically meaning they never have time off. There are no laws in UK entitling you to leave unlike here.

if they have a problem you advise them that as someone employed in the UK you (and they should) abide by the law of UK.

set boundaries now with them cos if you don’t you’ll work yourself into an early grave & they won’t give 2 s**s!

Husband works for himself in tech. We are just on our holiday and he took his massive Mac desktop computer with him. Wished he didn’t but I am used to it

YANBU to leave your laptop at home. YABU to take your work phone with you!

If you can't be organised enough for someone to cover you then you / your company are fucking up at some level. It sounds like a company of chaos and impulsive behaviours, rather than one that can be relied on!

Don't take your work equipment with you unless there is an explicit agreement that you have permission to do so and are on call or similar. As you are on paid leave that will not be the case.

There will always be people who don't believe in proper time off. These people are either control freaks, workaholics or usually both. You can tell because they display zero learning mindset and believe that their shitty attitudes are the bee's knees.

If you don't put in clear boundaries from the beginning people will assume you're happy for them to take the piss. DH says all sorts of crap when he's dealing with Americans 'I have a hard finish at 5 o'clock UK time' springs to mind.

From a business continuity perspective, I find it cringeworthy when people claim this sort of indispensability.

I've been c-suite myself, and a significant part of my role was organising things just so. I could have been hit by a bus and it wouldn't have mattered. Projects were run to a plan that facilitated staff absences.

I'd be embarrassed to have to work during holidays. How badly managed must your work be if it falls apart when you're not there?

Also clients would think you were a weirdo.

Absolutely not.

Yup I worked for an American company where my American boss expected me to check my email all the time, including weekends and leave, and she would call if I didn't respond promptly. Not a critical life saving industry either.
Nah, show them how we do it over here. Some other colleagues might take notice.

Don’t they have also just hsve 6 week Mat leave? Working with the Spanish / Italians / French is the best they just all bugger off for the whole of August.

Don’t they have also just hsve 6 week Mat leave?

US has no maternity leave. There's 12 weeks of unpaid medical leave, but that's not for all employees.

I wouldn't take a work phone. My one concession is to say that in an absolute emergency I can be contacted on my personal email but I can't guarantee how quickly I'll see it.

I think that's happened once in the last 9 years but I can guarantee others would have contacted me when not strictly necessary if they thought they could do it on a work device.

Take your phone, tell your boss they can call for emergencies only. Make sure you have an out of office on and it's clear who your cover is!

I feel your pain. I work in the UK for a global company who'd HQ are in USA. Their PTO also has to cover sickness so they hardly seem to take vacation time and when they do they're all obvs I'll be checking my email everyday...
I still remember the stunned silence from my new US Director when I told her that I wouldn't be checking emails on my 2 week summer holiday - despite it being our deadest time of year, and absolutely nothing going on - because I was on a massive, expensive family trip with no time for work!

To her create she recovered and said that was the way it should be etc etc and I gave her my personal phone number for emergencies. There was no emergency.

They can be fired at a moments notice - so are all paranoid. A couple of years ago we went through massive restructure and redundancies. UK staff went into consultation process for 3 months, agreed redundancies, stayed another 3 months while apply for internal posts etc, then were give 3 month notice and a years salary after that, with free re-training. NINE months.And a years salary for anyone who'd been there 5+ years.
The US colleagues quite literally were told that day, escorted from the building with all their stuff in boxes, given a months pay and 3 months health coverage. Some of them had been with the company for 20 years. Some were actually on holiday at the time and their stuff was Fedex'd back to their houses.

It's brutal. And we're considered a good company with good benefits in the US.

I emailed someone on Friday who I'd been messaging a few days previously and got a ' I've left the company message'. Boom. Gone!

That’s always my argument. I’m a named single point of contact for my customers, governing the service they get. But I’m not the service. I always say that if it’s critical that I personally am there then I’m not doing my job properly.

Germany were looking at stopping 24/7 working over 10 years ago
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-18482676

If I got emails from clients when they're on holiday I wouldn't think - so committed, what a winner! I'd think they were a bit sad... I'd wonder why they couldn't or hadn't delegated.
I deliberately leave my US colleagues off email chains when they're out - and catch them up when they get back. No one is indispensable.

When I get back off holiday and start looking at my emails I'll see the one asking me for the THING. Then my cover steps in and says I'll do the THING. Then they're be a flurry of emails, and the final one will be the THING has been done or the THING can wait til I'm back.

I work for a US company and it’s a similar culture. I never take my laptop unless there’s something I have to attend I can’t get out of. Usually there never is, I’d make an exception if the CEO decided they wanted me for something (never gonna happen!) worth noting that you shouldn’t be using unsecured wifi to connect to work vpn at most big firms these days, so the perfect excuse ;)

I do the following (I’m a senior manager with a team that’s globally located)

• take my phone with emails and teams on it and check once a day if I have to
• i tell everyone I work with / for, the week before I’m out that ‘I’m out from x-y date and won’t be logging on for calls or actively working, please let me know if you need anything from me by X (usually two days before I head out) and then a reminder the day before I head off
• I ensure I decline all meetings scheduled for whilst I’m away
• i compile a list of what’s happening / in progress for my boss and mail it to them on my last day
• check in with my team before I go to make sure there are no issues and I give them my mobile and tell them to @me on teams if there’s an emergency (there never has been)
• i set my automated ooo email reply with contacts of people who can help in my absence, people who don’t do this really piss me off!

Definitely leave it at home.

However I know I would take it as I'm uptight and anal like that. 😂

This is rubbish and it’s how people end up utterly burnt out. It doesn’t matter if your company is American. In the uk we are entitled to PTO, not a working holiday.
I work hard when I’m at work but my holiday is my own time and I wouldn’t remain working for a company who expected me to take my laptop away with me .