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!)

It can be from as low as £40k plus allowances in the Civil Service if in a PO post for a Minister. So it isn’t just seniors having to go through it 😅

My husband is very well paid, high 6 figure and he has never looked at emails while on holidays for the past 30 years.

I'm senior management and check my emails and messages when away to assist where I can (and not come back to a shit show).

However, my higher ups do not expect it and are grateful if I do help out. I suspect if it was expected and they were ungrateful, I wouldn't be as happy to muck in.

My salary is mid six figures and I don't check work emails on holiday or weekends, and almost never in the evenings. I work in tech for a large multinational, and that is standard in our team.

I’m a partner in consulting - yes I check my emails and I don’t remember the last time I didn’t bring my laptop on vacation, probably was my honeymoon

As a PP mentioned I don’t find it stressful to skim through and reply to something that would help the team or keep things moving, and ignore or file the rest

I would not expect junior team to check emails yet past a certain level of seniority (that comes with more autonomy and flexibility) yes indeed

There's also a difference between quickly checking your inbox over a coffee vs actively having to work - last holiday my DH (not super senior but in tech where high salaries put him into six figures) spent 2-3 hours a day working which I think is ridiculous unless it's some kind of unexpected crisis (which it wasn't)

I have my work emails on my phone and have ended up working on every single holiday - however I have recently moved into a role where I have no responsibility for a team and now can completely switch off. I’ll still keep an eye on emails but only because it makes me anxious not to!

My husband is in a very senior, very well paid role. He is very protective of his time off, and doesn’t deal with things generally while on holiday (or on evenings or weekends). If he needs to schedule something while we are away, it has to be a real NEED. And even then he is deeply annoyed about it. I find his attitude really baffling - at his salary I would expect to be (and be happy to be!) on call almost 24/7 (I know this is definitely a me/anxiety problem and his attitude is far more healthy than mine!). I’m used to working in organisations that don’t treat staff well, which has definitely impacted my expectations and work culture. Not being available just wouldn’t have been tolerated culturally, laws aside. Whereas I suppose he knows his worth and values himself enough to say no.

I will check in on work emails perhaps twice on a week's holiday, but I always keep one summer week work free and Christmas. I get about 200K a year but have no management responsibility.

If you don’t have good enough people to deputise then there is something very wrong with your org structure and succession planning. No-one should be a single point of failure and a good org should fully function with the absence of someone, however senior they are.

In my org we do not have a culture where people check email on leave. The only exception is if the business continuity plan is called in to action with something catastrophic. But not BAU.

I think there's more nuance here. My husband isn't a super high earner but he's senior and there are some things he does that aren't easily replaceable. So he will check in every few days if we are away. His manager has his personal info to contact him if something really urgent happens.

I'm much less important and there's nothing someone else can't do so I just turn it all off (though when I was recently away for 3 weeks I did plan a day to work in the middle just to avoid coming back to a mess)

I think there's an in between option that works for most situations.

I think it is almost always martyrdom- people want to feel they are needed and worry that if they can manage without them for a fortnight that it reflects badly on them.

It doesn’t. It shows you have developed a capable team.

A holiday is just that a complete break from work. I used to insist DH left work phone at home when we went on holiday but it didn't stop a few text to his personal phone. A quick text yes or no I didn't mind but an hour on the phone I was mad about. I once threatened to throw his phone in the sea if he didn't switch it off on the beach.

Certainly not at just over minimum wage - but I was expected to jump and respond no matter what.

I agree with those who are saying "it depends". When I was a Clinical Director I would delegate responsibilities to someone else when I went on holiday but if something really important happened whilst I was away I would have expected, and not minded, a phone call. So not "Dr X has rung in sick for tomorrow" - other people are more than capable of coping with that - but if there was something really major I'd want to know. There was a major incident once when I was on leave but not actually away so I went in for that and there were a couple of other occasions when I offered advice but generally if I was on holiday I left work behind.
I don't think organisations should be so dependent on any single person that they can't take a week off. I appreciate it can be difficult in small companies though. My DH is the only person in his company who does his specific job. Whilst he and a colleague in a similar field cross cover when they're on holiday there are still times when they have to call each other, though they do avoid it as much as possible.

But a good PO should have an out of hours PS/APS responsible for picking things up so they’re only responsible every one week in four, not all the time so it’s very different to what OP has suggested. And anyone in private office picking up emails on holiday is not very effective if I am honest. When I was PPS, I’d have definitely frowned on my PO team working on leave.

A DG, probably is available 24/7. At least mine and most good ones are. She has a private office which operates an on-call schedule between them and they try and protect her when she’s on leave, but she’s always available 24/7 because the buck stops with her.

Definitely contextual. I’m a member of senior management, £55k and can both have a complete switch off (when I’m away on holiday) or check in on emails or be available for emergencies if I’m just off for a few days at home, as I will be next week. I choose to do the latter as it reduces the catch up once I’m back in the office.

Our MD has only ever been completely incommunicado after he’d had some major surgery, but that was all known in advance and the business owner took up the baton for emergencies and big decisions.

Meanwhile my Brother works in a very time sensitive responsible position and is very rarely completely ‘off’ but is compensated very handsomely for it.

I don't think there's a specific pay threshold, rather there is a company/team culture where this would happen and others where not.

I was recently on holiday and the person taking over my job didn't have a lot of experience. I told her to whatsapp me as needed if anything came up and that worst case scenario, I might not be able to answer immediately, but that she ought to feel free to message. I'd much rather take two minutes to deal with something on holiday, than two hours solving the inflated issue after I get back. Plus I like my job and I'm good at it so I don't mind.

My boss is currently on sick leave. We know she'd answer us if we really needed her, which ironically is probably also why we're keen not to bother her if we can at all avoid it. It's all give and take at the end of the day. If I'm needed while on holiday I'll go of course, and in return I know I can expect understanding and flexibility if I have to leave early because a kid is sick.

No level or salary whatsoever.

if you died tomorrow, work would replace you.

DH (125k, senior manager) doesn't keep an eye on emails on holiday. If it was an absolute emergency then someone would ring him, but he wouldn't be able to do much as he doesn't take his laptop on holiday.

Theoretically a lot of things should be done a certain way. Reality is different for some, and for the truly unfortunate, it is a dreadful time. Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed and experienced some toxic environments across Ministerial (and DG) POs in the CS 🤷‍♂️

I would say in a medium size company board of directors only. In a large company if you are head of a function for a large part of the company then yes to especially if MD, FD, head of HR, head of safety.

I agree with this.

i don’t think it should be expected at any level. But anyone on below £70k should 100% NOT be checking emails on holiday.

@FancyCatSlave I totally agree with both your posts

I’m a senior manager but not Board level and earn 200k.

I never check emails on holiday but key people can WhatsApp me if there’s something urgent outside of working hours. I think I’ve received 2 such messages in the last decade.

Senior directors on 300k+ are expected to be more contactable.

Nobody on under 150k would ever be contacted outside of work hours. I think that’s fair.

Never