At what level of salary/responsibility is it reasonable to check/respond to emails on holiday?

[NameChanger400]

There is an unwritten rule at my work that those who are senior / well paid will still keep an eye and support/input as needed even on holiday.

YANBU - everyone deserves a break, even the CEO, PM etc!
YABU - if you are paid over X amount and have the responsibility, then it’s par for the course to always be available (and opinions on X amount would be helpful!)

I think it’s all within context really, taking into account what’s going on at work and where the individual is going on holiday

For example someone on honeymoon doing an African safari wouldn’t be expected to check-in but someone that has taken time off to do DIY might say to the team that they can text if they need something

It is a bit of an unwritten rule that senior managers and above (so probably about £70k) will keep an eye on emails but it’s certainly not expected or frowned upon if something happens and they aren’t aware

I once worked for a US employer who would not allow access to work emails when you were on holiday.

I admit their concern was more fraud prevention than the well-being of their employees.

I would not expect anyone to check their emails on holidays. Unless it was their own business.

I don’t think it’s anything to do with money. Everyone needs holidays and a break from work.

I can’t vote as I agree with both options. It is par for the course but that doesn’t mean it is right because everyone deserves a break.

I think everyone needs the chance to switch off.

Context matters massively.

Raab laying on a beach when Afghanistan fell, was rightly incredibly criticised.

Likewise, if I was a CEO or a PUS at a Govt. dept No. I wouldn’t take time off completely - I’d always be contactable for urgent business.

In my current role, I switch off completely - but I am neither important nor relevant.

People talk too much about ‘leading by example and taking time off’ and it’s usually an excuse to drop the ball. If something you are responsible for, or need to make decisions on, is kicking off and those decisions should only be made by you…then you should be working.

Only business owners should be working whilst on holiday.

I check my emails on holiday. I am on the board of directors.

I also believe everyone deserves a break so it should never be an expectation. I do it because I don’t mind and don’t feel stressed by it. If I didn’t feel that way I wouldn’t do it.

My DP is a mid manager on just over 70k. He doesn’t even look at emails in the evening very much. He will keep his work phone on for WhatsApp messages and that’s it. When he is on Annual leave the phone is off! Even his manager is the same. The head of dept above her was off for a full month last month and nothing was looked at. No job is worth that, you have to delegate to someone else!

I work in an exceptionally stressful industry which has time demands 24/7 and I think it’s really important to have protected time away from work, at all levels of the business.

I’m a director and don’t look at my emails when I’m not working - but my team, senior managers and our emergency cover service all have my personal number so if I’m needed outside hours they can get hold of me. It means I’m able to switch off fully (which I couldn’t do if I was dipping in and out of work comms) but I’m still able to support if necessary.

There’s “urgent” and urgent. In my previous place of work, there was a manager who was always checking in on holiday for “urgent” things which were anything but urgent - she just wanted to micromanage her team and didn’t want it to look like they could cope without her.

IME, a good manager/leader makes sure teams are set up in such a way that a deputy/deputies are able to hold the fort when the leader/manager is off. But there is someone who has authority to contact the actual leader/manager in truly urgent cases eg police investigation, death at work etc.

But I agree that senior staff should be contactable in urgent situations.

I think everyone needs a break, even senior roles can mostly be covered by others and very few decisions are made by a single person alone

Only people in certain type of roles, over 70k in our org, and even then, there's a massive emphasis on mental health so they would be told off jovial by people up and down the chain.
Its something I've found really interesting working in my field, as im aware of and come into contact with people mostly on 40k- 150k, so its very much not expected of you on 50k as you are small fry. I have a friend in another industry where its unwritten and unsaid that even on 30k you would check emails, and when I pointed out to her that her company would never be able to fire her on those grounds, so why doesn't she just stop (while making sure she documents and communicates unmanageable workload so there's a paper trail if her company did decide to pursue) she looked at me like I had two heads and told me its impossible. But cant really articulate why - its not the kind of role where you can get pushed out in other ways, its more of a culture of the industry.

I work in a technical management role, often in a small specialised team where because we are “back office” there is no consideration of the chance people can be sicks/on vacation as the aim is to keep headcount and cost to a minimum.

Pretty much as soon as I reached technical competence/above national average salary, it has been hard to completely switch off on holiday. In my jobs the official line has always been “please take a proper holiday, you don’t need to work”. The reality is often different, I simply cannot afford to switch off. I have often been a critically important person in small teams with no one who can perfectly cover my role, no matter how much time and energy I invest in training people to cover me and delegating access to systems.

I usually take laptop with me and check ahead that where I’m going is whitelisted for my IT security and that I will have good wifi!

On the other hand my dh is a very senior manager with a 6 figure salary and because he doesn’t have a crisis-management kind of role he can plan his work and take a complete break. He will anyway check emails but he will often let people know he is going to be 100% disengaged.

Senior Director - I dont look at emails when I'm on holiday (as opposed to just taking the odd day off and being at home)

If something's urgent enough, that needs my involvement, I'll be phoned.

DH - law firm partner, always.
Me- senior civil servant, not usually but I do give people my personal mobile in case of emergencies.

I earned £90k plus fifteen years ago and used to turn my blackberry off and leave it in a drawer at home if I was going away.
Team knew they could text if they needed to and I would ring in. Think that was pretty standard for that organisation - no person was indispensable and cover arrangements were in place.

I’m Director level and do not check emails or Teams messages on holiday (or out of hours really) because they are not our channels for urgent comms, all urgent/emergency comms is done via phone call and I always have my phone with me.

Old manager at work was insistent that holidays were protected, no emails, no phone calls, if people chose to do it, that was there choice, but , unless you are the CEO or very high up in an organisation, surely everyone deserves some time off

I don’t expect anyone to reply to my emails while they are on holiday.

I also refuse to have my work email on my personal phone

Generally noone should check emails and respond on holiday. I have worked in some very large corporate companiea and usually there is a mandate not to.
That said, if I was the CEO of say Tesco and on several million a year and responsible for thousands of employees, I would be making sure things don't fall apart during my tenure and be available for important calls. I am sure most people on this level of salary would be.
If I was a small business owner then I would also take calls as one thing going wrong could cost me my livelihood .
Anyone else, so employees, managers, middle managers and senior managers should be able to hand work over to a colleague for a week or two without issue. There should be someone else who can deal eith an issue if it arises. It doesnt need that one person when there is a whole company.

Nobody should be checking their emails while on annual leave. It also shouldn’t matter if you are on honeymoon or doing DIY or sitting in your PJ’s all week. That’s a slippery slope to employers deciding whose time off is more worthy. The senior team need to lead by example and not be available when they are on annual leave, set an ‘out of office’ auto reply and nominate another suitable person to contact. Otherwise it doesn’t end with just the senior/ highest paid, it trickles down to everyone being expected to be available.

my work doesn’t allow devise use abroad for security fortunately. There should be things in place to stop this needed but if it’s a true emergency then a text to ask a question on employees personal phone is all I would accept, along with an apology

This. My team know to call or WhatsApp me if anything urgent has come up and I need to jump onto my emails. I wouldn’t check my emails unless someone called me to say there’s something I need to deal with. But at Director level there is definitely an expectation that you are on hand if needed 24/7 365 days a year.

I'm in the public sector and our very senior staff aren't expected to be checking emails - they get so many it can be a full time job in itself, and they are humans who need down time to be effective just like anyone else. If there were something unexpectedly very urgent - eg a surprise inspection, or some awful news that might need to be 'managed' before it makes the papers - someone equally senior would ring them on their personal phone to notify them. I have known senior managers return from holidays early in those situations but it is rare that something is that urgent.