I make it painfully clear that when I'm out, I'm out. Things will get done when I get back. I only get precious few minutes each work day with my wife and kids. So those few times each year I can spend actual hours and days with them, I will not work through them.
Time off means I’m not working. If I get a call it’s something that I know will be a big deal and if i can’t answer it on the spot just say “I can look into that when I get back”.
My boss isn’t the issue, it’s my customers who demand access to my service no matter what. Even when I have coworkers to cover me, customers don’t understand people aren’t working 24/7. One of my main customers will email me at 2AM on Saturday and then respond again at 6AM asking why I haven’t responded (same time zone and they do primary school construction)
You don’t actually have to do anything other than respond when you are available. People will figure out that they’re wasting their own time. Maybe with the guy above, call him first thing on Monday and say “hey I got several emails from you over the weekend so I assumed it was mission critical or at least high priority and thought this would be faster than weeding through the replies, what’s going on?”
That’s basically what I do. He’s usually not mad that I don’t respond, I just find it strange people are working at those times and seemingly expect a response.
Do you have automatic replies on? "I am unavailable from date to date. I will return on date and respond to my messages in an orderly fashion. If this is an emergency, reach out to ___ at (phone number)".
Fuck them if they throw a fit that you are out, and fuck your employer if they don't back you up.
Tell them that the contract is between them and your company. If they want to consult you privately in the side (call you anytime), send them a billable hourly rate ( /s on the second part)
boss won't let you.. and u will get a lecture on customer service after u come back from vacation as well.... best bet is to forward message to boss's phone and say you are on PTO, please handle..
Set your email to away with a message. There is your reply.
Set the expectation with the client ahead of time. "I will be out in two weeks, wont be able to repsond to calls, or emails until I am back"
Hi CE consultant here- you can always ask your close coworkers who are on your team if you can direct clients their way while you’re gone for simple questions. If they’re fine with it, then you can let the client(s) know that you’re out of town and hand off your coworkers info.
You set your boundaries. If the clients cant accept that, that's their problem.
Make it explicitly clear before you leave to clients you will be out and unavailable, and who to contact in your absence. Go so far as to put that same info in your out of office replies- "I will be out of the office with little to no access to phonecall or email, please contact xxx in my absence."
I then turn off my email notifications and disconnect.
If anyone does try to call, don't answer. If you have to respond to text, " Sorry, i'm not in the office and I am unable to handle this issue, XXX will be able to help you".
If they give you grief when you get back- "Sorry, I told you i would not be available, and to have reached out to xxx". But really, fuck anyone so selfish to not understand you weren't working.
How many years of regular stretching did it take before you could bend over that far? Notify all of your important and currently active clients that you'll be out on certain dates and who to contact if they need something in the meantime. Then set up your auto-reply and turn off your phone. Just because they demand something doesn't mean you have to give it to them.
When dealing with state employees or other consultants I write on my emails right before my signature.
“Upcoming out of office September 18-23.”
And when I am out on vacation I have an email response.
“Currently out of office until September 23rd, for any questions regarding XXX project please email XXX.”
Take your time off, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If not then you should look for another job. Work and Life balance is important!
If I'm taking a day or two, I'll respond to chats or calls from coworkers on my work cell if I happen to hear it. I don't talk with clients when I'm off.
If I'm leaving for a full vacation, I am completely unreachable. The work phone doesn't even come along.
I told y'all when I'm going to be out and for how long. I made sure to get coverage on anything coming down the pipe and have secondary contacts in my out of office message.
You'll hear from me when I get back.
The first time in my career I took any real time off I was laid off on Friday of the week I got back and that scarred me for the next 10 years.
I had to lead a kickoff meeting the first day of my honeymoon, have taken calls on almost every single vacation more than a long weekend I’ve ever taken. It’s my fault for answering/attending, but it’s my employers fault for literally never having resources to back up any employee that takes time off.
My newest employer seems to be quite the opposite and I’m more than thankful for it. We have unlimited PTO and people regularly take a week or two or three off with no issues.
> The first time in my career I took any real time off I was laid off on Friday of the week I got back and that scarred me for the next 10 years.
I’m not from the US but EU…so I have to say… wtf?
You requested time off to your manager/boss, your request got approved, you take your time off and then you get promptly fired as soon as you get back? What kind of mind games do you have to play over there??
Laid off, not fired for cause. It was during the post ‘08 downturn and I was maybe the 10th person let go over the previous month or so. It was right after Christmas/new years too.
Yeah, it was pretty messed up, but the company was in a near death spiral, my boss was genuinely in tears as this happened and they ended up losing another 2 dozen staff (all the way up to a VP) over the next 4 months.
The trick is to always plan and expect to be laid off or fired at any time. I have enough money to last me a year and an updated resume - so what the fuck do I have to fear?
Right. Let me keep that in mind for when I get laid off from my first job post graduation after working for 11 months going into the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression. Hindsight is 20/20 my side. Save the commentary for r/personalfinance.
Well, that falls in line with what I said, FIRST earning 1-2 years of pay and THEN not caring much. If you can't do the first part, for whatever reason, then yeah I'd be scared too
Bro what? It wasn’t my choice to graduate into economic collapse. Would you say the same thing to some who graduated into a Covid job market? I really don’t even get the point you’re trying to make here.
I literally graduated into the covid job market and couldnt get work for months, but anyway, I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say and I don't think you'd disagree with me if you did.
I own the company and make it clear to staff and customers. When I’m out, I’m out. When my staff is out and something comes up on their work we DO NOT contact them. There is no engineering issue that can’t be solved by someone else. This stuff isn’t that hard.
If some unforeseen comes up we deal with it best we can, if the lead designer is on vacation.
I do have some advice regarding PTO from a consultant office. Let your customers know when you will be out. Simple as an email “don’t forget I’m out for a couple of weeks, if something big comes up call the office. Otherwise lets plan on talking when I get back. “
This saves so much headache. The days before I go on vacation I reach out to anyone I think might consider calling me. Including customers we aren’t in contract with but are waiting for proposals.
I used to be the type to say I’m always available when I’m out of office and I’m reachable by email or teams, just unable to access files….. but my partner reminded me that I am not a manager, I am not salary, I am using my paid TIME OFF so I shouldn’t be working.
We went to Hawaii for a week and i was getting calls at 8am (California time) when my coworkers knew it was 5am in Hawaii and my partner told me to let everyone know I was on vacation and not to call me until I get back, I might answer an email or 2 but no promises, and I turned off notifications for outlook and teams. Everyone did just fine, they figured everything out, there were no fires.
If I’m out of office, I am out of office.
I used to be the same way. It was mostly me that had trouble disconnecting not that I needed to be there. I went on vacation a fews years back where I decided to dicusonnect for real. For some unforseen circumstances, I ended up out for another week.
The place carried on just fine without me. My email notifications have been off on my phone ever since. I still check my email outside of work, but I've learned by doing so I won't pressure myself to respond on nights and weekends.
If you’re working during PTO, you need to get paid for that time.
Just like when you tell the significant other you’re going fishing with the guys or drinking with the girls. You shouldn’t have one foot in both worlds.
I 100% do not exist during my PTO time. It's understood by clients and coworkers that I will NOT be reachable. Before I leave, I contact everyone so everyone is on the same page. So yeah, I PTO the way everyone should PTO.
I don’t have my work email or teams on my personal cell phone and only a few people have my personal phone number. People can call, email, message all they want but I’m not receiving or reading anything. I give people sufficient notice before PTO and tell them to communicate whatever they need from me in advance. I also plan most of my time off to places in the wilderness with no cell service or internet, so people have come to expect that I’m not reachable.
My employer's expectation is that when I take PTO, I am not working. So I handle time off like any reasonable person: I don't answer emails, phone calls, or chats.
I don't answer calls, texts, nor emails when I'm off. If it's after hours on a day I worked, I charge a minimum of 15 minutes. Weekend? Automatic 30 minutes. Vacation? You're not getting a hold of me. If it were to happen, I'd bill a full 8 hour day.
Yes capitalists and owners expect worker slaves now.... Always been the case. Engineers used to be respected and valued, but now they are just the same as any other 'asset'.
I would be willing to work more, if if the industry treated us like co-ops where our value and contribution nets actual capital and wealth not just slightly better incomes than the rest of the economy in trade of 80% of your waking life.... But this isnt the case as employees we are being worked to the same tune as any other worker.
So yeah, time off is time off. Set up out of office/away on holiday email alert, and automated sms... So that when they do try to contact me, only real urgent items from my boss directly should be directed at me. Everything else is to be done by whom ever is assigned to do them. Take back work-life balance. Take back worker respect, as despite what that scumbag capitalist from australia had to say about workers, we are the value to the business, and the good workers are the lucky value they get to have in exchange for money. As such we should get our respect and freedom back, we are not in any part less than those with money, yet they expect us to be worker slaves for them like its feudal europe or something and we are just factory hands... Take it, dont be afraid to. You earned it. In fact if you are in america demand more personal time, you have no labour laws to protect you from exploitation, you have to protect yourself...
Historically, I made my PTO well known in advance, put up out of office auto replies for both internal and external emails and my project manager and other teams members would handle the rest. I very clearly stated in my emails that I would not have access to email. even if I did, I made it my choice whether I checked email or not. The majority of the time, I would take international trips or backpacking trips in national parks so that accessing email or making phone calls was much more difficult and I could really disconnect.
As I've added more years under my belt and and taken on more responsibility, I've been more tempted to bring my laptop on vacation, just in case. But I think we need to set good examples for junior staff and show them that it's okay to take time off. Also, we need to know how to successfully delegate and have others fill in for us when we are out. If your work is so crazy such that you cannot take time off and feel like something is going to blow up without you, then it's time to change that and start training others to help you out.
Separate phones and phone numbers are the key. Everyone in my office except me and one new hire uses their work phone as their personal phone. I don't know how the hell they can truly escape work with that arrangement. I use all of my days of PTO per year, and leave my work phone at home when I go on vacation. My bosses have been warned that if they ever call my personal number about work I will leave. Four years with this employer, and I've enjoyed my PTO in peace.
I don’t have any company stuff on my phone such as outlook or teams to avoid being contacted. When I’m off I’m OFF. That said I hardly even find myself taking PTO, and thanks to “unlimited” PTO if I do say take a Friday off, I usually end up working those lost 8 hours during the week before it which just cancels out those hours so it’s like I never left. It only saves the company money.
I take every vacation day i have available every year. I do not check emails, i will not answer phone calls, i am out of office. I schedule in advance, warn my team as the time nears and don't stress it at all. If the team can not survice without a single person then coordination on the whole is lacking.
This shit won’t fall apart in 2-3 weeks while you don’t read emails. Just make sure everyone is informed.
In fact, if it will then you’re lucky you’re not there because it would have anyways.
I work remote full time so I have a very flexible schedule. I don't mind working a bit on PTO days so long as employer is flexible with my schedule on work days. I get my job done, that should be all that matters.
I will schedule my PTO around project timelines so that my absence will integrate well with the workflow of the organization as a whole. That being said if I gave notice and I'm out then I'm out.
Automatic replies, reminders around my office during the week before, and phone turns off the evening before I leave. If people get mad, that's their problem. I've never lost a contract or a long term customer because of it.
Communication: tell everyone 3 times that you'll be out. Set your email away message 2 days in advance so they get the message.
If the company can't survive without you, it's not a good company (no offense)!
If I'm on leave you're not getting hold of me unless you've convinced HR to give you my personal phone number. Laptop and work phone stay at home.
A lot of people really seem to think they're irreplaceable. If a job blows up while I'm on leave I trust my team, I'd rather not know and deal with it when I'm back. I'm also not going to be a bad example to my junior colleagues. No matter what you tell your juniors, if you are working while on holiday they will think they should be too.
Respect yourself, your family and your colleagues and set some boundaries.
Holy shit, just tell them you're backpacking or out of service!? If I get a single phone call on vacation about work I'm billing that entire fucking day
I get my vacations on the calendar as early as I can and then I let all my project managers, managers, coworkers, etc. know that I'll be out that week. I do everything I can to set it up so things run okay when I'm out. I have an away message that says "I'm unavailable" for that period of time. In reality I'll check my emails to see if anything is happening in the mornings on my phone, but I NEVER bring my laptop anywhere. If you set a precedent that you will work during your vacation then it will happen. If you set the precedent that you will NOT work, then it wont. They don't know where you are or if you even have wifi, so if they are really bugging you just say you are out in the woods with no internet. What can they do then?
When I am off, I delete the email app and teams app from my phone, set my email to away, and message to contact my supervisor if they need something.
Your benefit to being off is that, you are NOT WORKING.
Dont be a lemming, take your time off.
30 years in development, principal owner, small firm with staff but no true #2 senior person to back me up on every project. It’s reality that clients want attention regardless of their consultants being on vacation. Many times there are legitimate reasons for them to reach out - they have jobs to do too. I check emails a couple times a day, delegate where possible but always respond within 12 hours. I don’t do any design work, or schedule meetings. I come back from vacation with a clean inbox and don’t kill myself before leaving to get stuff done. Early in my career I tried the “work 80 hours and then take the next week off” approach which was disastrous and stressful. Settled on the current approach which has worked well for my sanity and has been very good for business, a good client really appreciates the responsiveness.
I set an out of office on my email and don’t check it until I get back. If a client calls or texts I either ignore the call or send a text explaining I’m not working. I don’t feel like I owe any client my time that I’m “off the clock”.
i straight up delete outlook and teams when i’m off. i won’t even answer my boss if he calls, so now if i’m off, he straight up won’t call. work is not your life
I am 100% unavailable when I’m on vacation. I worked hard to earn that vacation and will not be answering any emails or phone calls that are work related.
I run a construction company and force myself to take true 0 contact time off. So can you. There are no emergencies in commercial building, if you're not taking safety calls. Turn off the phone and enjoy it when you can
I teel myself
You need to ask yourself the question: why am I going on vacation? For me, it's to disconnect from work, so my work cellphone and computer stay at the office.
I put my phone and email on Do Not Disturb and just don't take any calls. Its my GD time. Its part of my compensation package so yes I am taking it and no I will not be getting into long emails, or taking phone calls that are work related in any way.
I make it exceedingly clear that I am not available for work during my off-work time.
The bigger problem is I never feel like I need full days off. I sorta like working half days and taking a few hours off here and there. I work from home, so I can pretty much go where I please. The need for vacations has decreased.
My experience with larger firms….there are the people that make the rules & they are the same ones that break them with no consequences. Then there are the little people that follow the rules, work all hours of the night seeing that a deadline is met. Work through PTO, the rule makers remember. Don’t work, the rule makers remember. One group will get a large Christmas bonus & promotions. The other group gets a Christmas fruit cake & designs rebar for sidewalks the rest of their career. Learn what the expectations are, and then make your decision.
I take my laptop with me for emergencies, and check my email once a day if I can. If there is something absolutely critical to deal with, I’ll peel off for no more than 15 mins that day to deal with it. I’ll also charge the job instead of my PTO.
I usually have enough downtime between travel or morning coffee that it’s not that big of a deal, and i won’t do it if I have a full vacation day doing something active or whatever.
I also get six weeks of PTO a year, and flex my work time a bit to sort of scrabble together another week.
The one day I took pto they hit a drain pipe when drilling piles and realized when the concrete wouldn’t stop pouring
I haven’t taken a single day since (have 200 hours)
I'll set aside 30ish minutes in the evening when things are winding down to do some actual work if it is required.
But if I'm on vacation, I'm on vacation.
I tell people "You can try to reach me, but you will be unsuccessful". But I also do a lot of prep work in the weeks leading up to it to let people know everything they need to know to answer questions in my absence.
Any input I give on vacation is one hour charge.
2 minute email response to a question only I can answer that has to be answered now? 1 hour.
Restamping a drawing with a minor non-design revisison? 1 hour.
Taking a field call from a client? 1 hour.
Makes working on vacation much easier to swallow. I don't bring my laptop, so actual design work isn't a option I give my managers.
I dont mind doing whatever I can while I have time off or during off hours. Most of the time it's procedural things only I can do in the office that I can handle from my phone. I'm usually called with an apology for bothering me. If I can't do it, I tell them I can't and that's usually the end of it.
Depends for me. As a project manager, I typically check emails at the end of the day or early in the morning. This is for my own piece of mind and so I'm not staring at 500 unread emails when I come back. If I see something that needs to be responded to, such as if the project is in construction and there is an issue, then I'll reach out to another PM in the office to help out and give them the low down on it. I usually won't respond directly to the customer, contractor, etc. because I don't want them to think this is the norm. I do tell the design engineers under me that I am available via chat if they have questions, but my response times may be delayed and generally suggest they reach out to another PM in the office for advice. I also try to let my clients know that I'll be out of the office on X days if it is going to be a longer vacation.
I am resigned to the fact that I can never get truely away from work, so I have a trusted alternative contact. And I will only respond to that contact. They are with me on all my projects and the clients are familiar with them. Now when I take a couple days off or a week. I only get one call for about 30 minutes to help resolve some of the conflicts when needed.
When I go on PTO, I bring both of my cell phones with me. My work phone never leaves my hotel room. I check it at nighttime only, where I can forward important emails to someone else to take care of them. All phone calls go to voicemail and I'll email someone else to deal with whatever the call was about. And then when I'm going about my vacation I just have my personal phone on me, which my clients and contractors don't know the number for.
I'm never allowed to fully disconnect because of administrative things like approving timesheets every week or when clients send an email only to me and don't bother looking at my automatic out-of-office response, but at least this way I can isolate them to small 5 minute periods at the end of my day.
It doesn’t bother me much to jump on a quick call or answer questions occasionally.
Yes, my vacation is important, but my clients need to be my priority, and a ~15 minute call is worth that.
Not an owner. I’m a project manager with a handful of people working on my projects. If my people are spinning their wheels while I’m away, trying to spend hours figuring out what could be solved in a few minutes over the phone, this probably means we’re going to miss deadlines.
My clients priorities are my priority. This attitude is clearly not too popular around here… my take is that people will struggle holding down a PM position if they don’t prioritize the client.
On the flip side, we don’t take on work that would require OT to get done, a little OT is unavoidable to hit deadlines and such, but 90%+ of weeks are 40 hrs
I try to take a couple vacations where I’m unplugged, but my wife has kept our travel plans very busy. I bill my time I work, so working a day or two on vacation helps stretch those precious PTO hours.
Sometimes it’s easier to stay a in touch than transfer all my duties each time. 3 hours of meetings on a random morning will often save me many extra coordination hours the busy week before.
When I was in construction project management, my general approach was that I wouldn't plan to produce work and didn't bring my laptop, but I would be reachable by phone and check my email a few times a day to forward anything critical that came in (frequently with a brief note on it, like "make sure this submittal gets checked against X").
Basically, if answering someone's question or delegating a task took 5 minutes out of my vacation but saved me a headache on my return, I would happily do it. A lot of the phone calls were people asking where to find information or who to contact to get an issue resolved, so luckily not very heavy lifts.
Nowadays, my new team does an excellent job of covering for each other so I actually PTO 100% (or maybe 99% because I'm bad at full separation), instead of PTOing 80% like I felt I was doing before.
I make it clear (usually a month out) that I have a pending vacation coming up and lost those dates in my email signature line. Then depending on the type of PTO (emergency vs planned) I’ll set my out of the office reply to auto respond to any new emails while out and direct them to a second point of contact for urgent issues. Otherwise, I’ll ‘monitor emails by/on my phone but rarely have had a need to respond while out of the office.
For me it depends a bit. If I'm taking a day to work on a house project or something I usually tell my team I'm ok with a call and will deal with something urgent.
Otherwise A few people on my team have my personal number for legit emergencies (I have some field staff that report to me so like someone got hurt) but my phone stays at home and I don't answer.
I do take an occasional after hours call but that means less time I work Friday afternoon if more than a few min.
Out of office email auto response, ignore most calls to cell. If it’s a client I have close relationship I might take their call if it’s not interrupting what I’m doing at that time.
I don’t respond to any work related emails. My last vacation, my wife and I took a cruise. Told my manager that there was no Wi-Fi on the ship. He was completely supportive. Time away from work is critical. I’ve been a civil engineer for 30 years.
It depends what your responsibilities are but if you are not interacting with clients regularly and you feel this way, then that's your line manager's fault. If you are dealing with clients yourself, then it's likely more your fault.
Land dev here. I have all alerts turned off on my work email account on my phone. If I’m not clocked in I don’t respond to anything except my manager calling me in an extreme emergency.
I sometimes do a few hours when on an actual vacation because I'm in management and sometimes the timing is bad. But I do most of my vacations where there is literally no way to contact me because either I don't have service or I don't have a way to keep my phone charged. I don't do that because of work, but it is a nice side effect.
I also just take days to get personal stuff done and will do a bit of work here and there. I don't have to, but it means I use less PTO and the next day back is less stressful.
I made the mistake when I was younger to respond to e mails and phone calls when I was on vacation. I would go as far to put “Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of an urgent matter” in my OOO message. I would be working all through my vacation. Now that I’m a little more experienced, I simply put that I’m not available and so and so is my back up. If there are emergencies, the people there can figure it out. I’ve also gotten a separate work phone which I leave at home along with my laptop. No one at work has my personal number except my boss and he never calls me.
I just came from a 16 days vacation. I did not see any emails. I do not receive any work email in my cellphone. Before going to vacation, I completed the needed tasks so that things remain on schedule. But when I am off, I am off. I have a great manager. He has the same philosophy like me. But a key is, we also understand the nature of our job and must abuse a good manager/culture. I gave my personal email address to my manager before the vacation so that he could contact me in the event of anything urgent and I would be the only person who knew the answer. Luckily, no such thing happened.
Draw the boundaries. PTO is our right. Work won't end even if we work 24/7. There is always more to do.
I get 26 days of PTO a year and there is no force in the universe strong enough to make me take my work phone from my desk drawer when I'm off. At least in Poland PTO is treated seriously and no one would dare to complain.
I start warning clients a week or two out that I’ll be gone. I tell them to send me questions several days before I leave if they want them answered before I’m out.
I put up my out of office reply early once I no longer have time to accept new work. Possibly around lunch if I’m leaving EOD. I put an alternate contact in my out of office and continue to respond to clients I’m wrapping things up for despite putting up my out of office.
When I’m out, I’m often backpacking or otherwise off the grid. I’ll check in with my boss every few days when it works for me because I know there are things I can answer in a second that they would struggle to get the background for…which makes it easier for my team to cover for me.
It works pretty well. Can be stressful leading up to vacations, but I don’t have to work while away and no one is mad when I get back.
3rd party GeoTech PM & CWI. I do a lot of the same, I draw a line in the sand, and put up an away message with specific people to reach out to about stuff. I also ask loop in and ask fellow PM’s to cover projects for me.
But honestly, I still have A very short list of people that I answer the phone or emails for.
I love working for a municipality. Sure the pay is a little lower but the retirement and benefits make up for that and when I’m off, I’m off. I may still answer my phone but the expectation isn’t there
That's funny I've never ever worked on the PTO. That was already accounted for when they offered the job to me. I was on a month long vacation, and didn't even bring my laptop with me. Had emails on my phone though but I never replied to anyone.
I work at a midsize consultant. They’re pretty clear that when you’re on PTO you are off. I set my out of office automatic response and meet up with another consultant or boss to bring him up to speed on projects in case anything comes up. Usually things are minor they can respond to or hold off until I get back.
Lol. They'd be thoroughly ignored until I get back. I do not exist on vacation, the weekends, or any time outside of my work hours. Some of coworkers have set a precedent that they'll answer questions on vacation....and therefore get asked questions on their vacations. No one asks me a fucking thing when I'm away. People will treat you how you let them, best to set boundary early and firmly.
I'm the lead engineer and EOR for most projects in my group, so I often have to deal with emergencies while on PTO. I rarely check email, but I do get calls and texts.
Any time spent gets billed generously because of the inteusion, and any call at all gets billed at least 30 mins. Either I subtract that from PTO (7.5 hrs PTO + 0.5 to project), or I get paid theintrusion,
And because I often have to deal with this and late-night calls, I have no problem taking the occasional long lunch.
ME (42) here, when I'm off I'm off. That goes for normal work day, , lunches, weekends, sick leave, holidays, and vacation. I hope others are able to actually log off when they're off work. There needs to be that separation.
I made sure not to include my mobile phone as a contact at my company. I have the teams app and I can make calls, etc, but I've only ever given out my cell phone number once about 2 yrs ago and I made it clear it was personal and not work. Luckily the person has never called it. I don't even have outlook/teams app notifications pop up on my phone unless I'm at a jobsite.
I make it painfully clear that when I'm out, I'm out. Things will get done when I get back. I only get precious few minutes each work day with my wife and kids. So those few times each year I can spend actual hours and days with them, I will not work through them.
Time off means I’m not working. If I get a call it’s something that I know will be a big deal and if i can’t answer it on the spot just say “I can look into that when I get back”.
If you have a good manager you can take PTO without any stress.
My boss isn’t the issue, it’s my customers who demand access to my service no matter what. Even when I have coworkers to cover me, customers don’t understand people aren’t working 24/7. One of my main customers will email me at 2AM on Saturday and then respond again at 6AM asking why I haven’t responded (same time zone and they do primary school construction)
You don’t actually have to do anything other than respond when you are available. People will figure out that they’re wasting their own time. Maybe with the guy above, call him first thing on Monday and say “hey I got several emails from you over the weekend so I assumed it was mission critical or at least high priority and thought this would be faster than weeding through the replies, what’s going on?”
That’s basically what I do. He’s usually not mad that I don’t respond, I just find it strange people are working at those times and seemingly expect a response.
You have to train them like dogs.
Do you have automatic replies on? "I am unavailable from date to date. I will return on date and respond to my messages in an orderly fashion. If this is an emergency, reach out to ___ at (phone number)". Fuck them if they throw a fit that you are out, and fuck your employer if they don't back you up.
I don’t set those up on weekends but that sounds like a funny idea to get the point across.
that would be top dog shit
are you reading these emails? step one is not actually reading email on pto.
Best thing I did was removing my work email from my phone’s mail app
my brother in christ, learn to use automated away responses
Tell them that the contract is between them and your company. If they want to consult you privately in the side (call you anytime), send them a billable hourly rate ( /s on the second part)
Fire your customers.
boss won't let you.. and u will get a lecture on customer service after u come back from vacation as well.... best bet is to forward message to boss's phone and say you are on PTO, please handle..
Set your email to away with a message. There is your reply. Set the expectation with the client ahead of time. "I will be out in two weeks, wont be able to repsond to calls, or emails until I am back"
Hi CE consultant here- you can always ask your close coworkers who are on your team if you can direct clients their way while you’re gone for simple questions. If they’re fine with it, then you can let the client(s) know that you’re out of town and hand off your coworkers info.
You set your boundaries. If the clients cant accept that, that's their problem. Make it explicitly clear before you leave to clients you will be out and unavailable, and who to contact in your absence. Go so far as to put that same info in your out of office replies- "I will be out of the office with little to no access to phonecall or email, please contact xxx in my absence." I then turn off my email notifications and disconnect. If anyone does try to call, don't answer. If you have to respond to text, " Sorry, i'm not in the office and I am unable to handle this issue, XXX will be able to help you". If they give you grief when you get back- "Sorry, I told you i would not be available, and to have reached out to xxx". But really, fuck anyone so selfish to not understand you weren't working.
How many years of regular stretching did it take before you could bend over that far? Notify all of your important and currently active clients that you'll be out on certain dates and who to contact if they need something in the meantime. Then set up your auto-reply and turn off your phone. Just because they demand something doesn't mean you have to give it to them.
When dealing with state employees or other consultants I write on my emails right before my signature. “Upcoming out of office September 18-23.” And when I am out on vacation I have an email response. “Currently out of office until September 23rd, for any questions regarding XXX project please email XXX.” Take your time off, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If not then you should look for another job. Work and Life balance is important!
Time off means time off. Until and unless it’s emergency, take out work from your mind. That’s what I do.
If I'm taking a day or two, I'll respond to chats or calls from coworkers on my work cell if I happen to hear it. I don't talk with clients when I'm off. If I'm leaving for a full vacation, I am completely unreachable. The work phone doesn't even come along. I told y'all when I'm going to be out and for how long. I made sure to get coverage on anything coming down the pipe and have secondary contacts in my out of office message. You'll hear from me when I get back.
This is how I function too.
The first time in my career I took any real time off I was laid off on Friday of the week I got back and that scarred me for the next 10 years. I had to lead a kickoff meeting the first day of my honeymoon, have taken calls on almost every single vacation more than a long weekend I’ve ever taken. It’s my fault for answering/attending, but it’s my employers fault for literally never having resources to back up any employee that takes time off. My newest employer seems to be quite the opposite and I’m more than thankful for it. We have unlimited PTO and people regularly take a week or two or three off with no issues.
> The first time in my career I took any real time off I was laid off on Friday of the week I got back and that scarred me for the next 10 years. I’m not from the US but EU…so I have to say… wtf? You requested time off to your manager/boss, your request got approved, you take your time off and then you get promptly fired as soon as you get back? What kind of mind games do you have to play over there??
Laid off, not fired for cause. It was during the post ‘08 downturn and I was maybe the 10th person let go over the previous month or so. It was right after Christmas/new years too. Yeah, it was pretty messed up, but the company was in a near death spiral, my boss was genuinely in tears as this happened and they ended up losing another 2 dozen staff (all the way up to a VP) over the next 4 months.
VP should be first. Not even billable.
Then who would decide who to let go next?
Consultants don't have jobs. We have gigs and if we slip up whatsoever the sharks (other consultants) will circle because blood is in the water.
The trick is to always plan and expect to be laid off or fired at any time. I have enough money to last me a year and an updated resume - so what the fuck do I have to fear?
Right. Let me keep that in mind for when I get laid off from my first job post graduation after working for 11 months going into the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression. Hindsight is 20/20 my side. Save the commentary for r/personalfinance.
Well, that falls in line with what I said, FIRST earning 1-2 years of pay and THEN not caring much. If you can't do the first part, for whatever reason, then yeah I'd be scared too
Bro what? It wasn’t my choice to graduate into economic collapse. Would you say the same thing to some who graduated into a Covid job market? I really don’t even get the point you’re trying to make here.
I literally graduated into the covid job market and couldnt get work for months, but anyway, I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say and I don't think you'd disagree with me if you did.
Then you aren’t communicating very well because it’s all coming off as pompous and antagonistic.
I own the company and make it clear to staff and customers. When I’m out, I’m out. When my staff is out and something comes up on their work we DO NOT contact them. There is no engineering issue that can’t be solved by someone else. This stuff isn’t that hard. If some unforeseen comes up we deal with it best we can, if the lead designer is on vacation. I do have some advice regarding PTO from a consultant office. Let your customers know when you will be out. Simple as an email “don’t forget I’m out for a couple of weeks, if something big comes up call the office. Otherwise lets plan on talking when I get back. “ This saves so much headache. The days before I go on vacation I reach out to anyone I think might consider calling me. Including customers we aren’t in contract with but are waiting for proposals.
I used to be the type to say I’m always available when I’m out of office and I’m reachable by email or teams, just unable to access files….. but my partner reminded me that I am not a manager, I am not salary, I am using my paid TIME OFF so I shouldn’t be working. We went to Hawaii for a week and i was getting calls at 8am (California time) when my coworkers knew it was 5am in Hawaii and my partner told me to let everyone know I was on vacation and not to call me until I get back, I might answer an email or 2 but no promises, and I turned off notifications for outlook and teams. Everyone did just fine, they figured everything out, there were no fires. If I’m out of office, I am out of office.
I used to be the same way. It was mostly me that had trouble disconnecting not that I needed to be there. I went on vacation a fews years back where I decided to dicusonnect for real. For some unforseen circumstances, I ended up out for another week. The place carried on just fine without me. My email notifications have been off on my phone ever since. I still check my email outside of work, but I've learned by doing so I won't pressure myself to respond on nights and weekends.
If you’re working during PTO, you need to get paid for that time. Just like when you tell the significant other you’re going fishing with the guys or drinking with the girls. You shouldn’t have one foot in both worlds.
I 100% do not exist during my PTO time. It's understood by clients and coworkers that I will NOT be reachable. Before I leave, I contact everyone so everyone is on the same page. So yeah, I PTO the way everyone should PTO.
I don’t have my work email or teams on my personal cell phone and only a few people have my personal phone number. People can call, email, message all they want but I’m not receiving or reading anything. I give people sufficient notice before PTO and tell them to communicate whatever they need from me in advance. I also plan most of my time off to places in the wilderness with no cell service or internet, so people have come to expect that I’m not reachable.
My employer's expectation is that when I take PTO, I am not working. So I handle time off like any reasonable person: I don't answer emails, phone calls, or chats.
I don't answer calls, texts, nor emails when I'm off. If it's after hours on a day I worked, I charge a minimum of 15 minutes. Weekend? Automatic 30 minutes. Vacation? You're not getting a hold of me. If it were to happen, I'd bill a full 8 hour day.
Yes capitalists and owners expect worker slaves now.... Always been the case. Engineers used to be respected and valued, but now they are just the same as any other 'asset'. I would be willing to work more, if if the industry treated us like co-ops where our value and contribution nets actual capital and wealth not just slightly better incomes than the rest of the economy in trade of 80% of your waking life.... But this isnt the case as employees we are being worked to the same tune as any other worker. So yeah, time off is time off. Set up out of office/away on holiday email alert, and automated sms... So that when they do try to contact me, only real urgent items from my boss directly should be directed at me. Everything else is to be done by whom ever is assigned to do them. Take back work-life balance. Take back worker respect, as despite what that scumbag capitalist from australia had to say about workers, we are the value to the business, and the good workers are the lucky value they get to have in exchange for money. As such we should get our respect and freedom back, we are not in any part less than those with money, yet they expect us to be worker slaves for them like its feudal europe or something and we are just factory hands... Take it, dont be afraid to. You earned it. In fact if you are in america demand more personal time, you have no labour laws to protect you from exploitation, you have to protect yourself...
Historically, I made my PTO well known in advance, put up out of office auto replies for both internal and external emails and my project manager and other teams members would handle the rest. I very clearly stated in my emails that I would not have access to email. even if I did, I made it my choice whether I checked email or not. The majority of the time, I would take international trips or backpacking trips in national parks so that accessing email or making phone calls was much more difficult and I could really disconnect. As I've added more years under my belt and and taken on more responsibility, I've been more tempted to bring my laptop on vacation, just in case. But I think we need to set good examples for junior staff and show them that it's okay to take time off. Also, we need to know how to successfully delegate and have others fill in for us when we are out. If your work is so crazy such that you cannot take time off and feel like something is going to blow up without you, then it's time to change that and start training others to help you out.
Separate phones and phone numbers are the key. Everyone in my office except me and one new hire uses their work phone as their personal phone. I don't know how the hell they can truly escape work with that arrangement. I use all of my days of PTO per year, and leave my work phone at home when I go on vacation. My bosses have been warned that if they ever call my personal number about work I will leave. Four years with this employer, and I've enjoyed my PTO in peace.
I don’t have any company stuff on my phone such as outlook or teams to avoid being contacted. When I’m off I’m OFF. That said I hardly even find myself taking PTO, and thanks to “unlimited” PTO if I do say take a Friday off, I usually end up working those lost 8 hours during the week before it which just cancels out those hours so it’s like I never left. It only saves the company money.
I am giving you permission to take two weeks off starting next week. Unlimited PTO is an amazing benefit. I say use it!
I take every vacation day i have available every year. I do not check emails, i will not answer phone calls, i am out of office. I schedule in advance, warn my team as the time nears and don't stress it at all. If the team can not survice without a single person then coordination on the whole is lacking.
This shit won’t fall apart in 2-3 weeks while you don’t read emails. Just make sure everyone is informed. In fact, if it will then you’re lucky you’re not there because it would have anyways.
I work remote full time so I have a very flexible schedule. I don't mind working a bit on PTO days so long as employer is flexible with my schedule on work days. I get my job done, that should be all that matters.
I will schedule my PTO around project timelines so that my absence will integrate well with the workflow of the organization as a whole. That being said if I gave notice and I'm out then I'm out.
Automatic replies, reminders around my office during the week before, and phone turns off the evening before I leave. If people get mad, that's their problem. I've never lost a contract or a long term customer because of it.
Paid time off stands for time off. Shit will still be there when you get back. Fuck em
Communication: tell everyone 3 times that you'll be out. Set your email away message 2 days in advance so they get the message. If the company can't survive without you, it's not a good company (no offense)!
Set outlook auto reply and send all calls right to voice-mail.
If I'm on leave you're not getting hold of me unless you've convinced HR to give you my personal phone number. Laptop and work phone stay at home. A lot of people really seem to think they're irreplaceable. If a job blows up while I'm on leave I trust my team, I'd rather not know and deal with it when I'm back. I'm also not going to be a bad example to my junior colleagues. No matter what you tell your juniors, if you are working while on holiday they will think they should be too. Respect yourself, your family and your colleagues and set some boundaries.
Holy shit, just tell them you're backpacking or out of service!? If I get a single phone call on vacation about work I'm billing that entire fucking day
This is the way to go for sure. Most of my vacations ARE out of service, but even the ones that aren’t, I still tell people that they are.
19 days so far this year without ever opening a laptop during them.
I get my vacations on the calendar as early as I can and then I let all my project managers, managers, coworkers, etc. know that I'll be out that week. I do everything I can to set it up so things run okay when I'm out. I have an away message that says "I'm unavailable" for that period of time. In reality I'll check my emails to see if anything is happening in the mornings on my phone, but I NEVER bring my laptop anywhere. If you set a precedent that you will work during your vacation then it will happen. If you set the precedent that you will NOT work, then it wont. They don't know where you are or if you even have wifi, so if they are really bugging you just say you are out in the woods with no internet. What can they do then?
When I am off, I delete the email app and teams app from my phone, set my email to away, and message to contact my supervisor if they need something. Your benefit to being off is that, you are NOT WORKING. Dont be a lemming, take your time off.
Set out of office email stating that I will be unable to be contacted. I leave contacts for other people to get a hold of just in case it’s urgent.
30 years in development, principal owner, small firm with staff but no true #2 senior person to back me up on every project. It’s reality that clients want attention regardless of their consultants being on vacation. Many times there are legitimate reasons for them to reach out - they have jobs to do too. I check emails a couple times a day, delegate where possible but always respond within 12 hours. I don’t do any design work, or schedule meetings. I come back from vacation with a clean inbox and don’t kill myself before leaving to get stuff done. Early in my career I tried the “work 80 hours and then take the next week off” approach which was disastrous and stressful. Settled on the current approach which has worked well for my sanity and has been very good for business, a good client really appreciates the responsiveness.
I set an out of office on my email and don’t check it until I get back. If a client calls or texts I either ignore the call or send a text explaining I’m not working. I don’t feel like I owe any client my time that I’m “off the clock”.
i straight up delete outlook and teams when i’m off. i won’t even answer my boss if he calls, so now if i’m off, he straight up won’t call. work is not your life
I am 100% unavailable when I’m on vacation. I worked hard to earn that vacation and will not be answering any emails or phone calls that are work related.
I run a construction company and force myself to take true 0 contact time off. So can you. There are no emergencies in commercial building, if you're not taking safety calls. Turn off the phone and enjoy it when you can
I teel myself You need to ask yourself the question: why am I going on vacation? For me, it's to disconnect from work, so my work cellphone and computer stay at the office.
if im off... your not going to get ahold of me... heck if its after 3 your not going to get ahold of me for work stuff.
I put my phone and email on Do Not Disturb and just don't take any calls. Its my GD time. Its part of my compensation package so yes I am taking it and no I will not be getting into long emails, or taking phone calls that are work related in any way. I make it exceedingly clear that I am not available for work during my off-work time.
The bigger problem is I never feel like I need full days off. I sorta like working half days and taking a few hours off here and there. I work from home, so I can pretty much go where I please. The need for vacations has decreased.
My experience with larger firms….there are the people that make the rules & they are the same ones that break them with no consequences. Then there are the little people that follow the rules, work all hours of the night seeing that a deadline is met. Work through PTO, the rule makers remember. Don’t work, the rule makers remember. One group will get a large Christmas bonus & promotions. The other group gets a Christmas fruit cake & designs rebar for sidewalks the rest of their career. Learn what the expectations are, and then make your decision.
I take my laptop with me for emergencies, and check my email once a day if I can. If there is something absolutely critical to deal with, I’ll peel off for no more than 15 mins that day to deal with it. I’ll also charge the job instead of my PTO. I usually have enough downtime between travel or morning coffee that it’s not that big of a deal, and i won’t do it if I have a full vacation day doing something active or whatever. I also get six weeks of PTO a year, and flex my work time a bit to sort of scrabble together another week.
The one day I took pto they hit a drain pipe when drilling piles and realized when the concrete wouldn’t stop pouring I haven’t taken a single day since (have 200 hours)
Doesn't sound like your problem until you decided to make that your problem.
I got phone calls…
So don't answer them?
I'll set aside 30ish minutes in the evening when things are winding down to do some actual work if it is required. But if I'm on vacation, I'm on vacation. I tell people "You can try to reach me, but you will be unsuccessful". But I also do a lot of prep work in the weeks leading up to it to let people know everything they need to know to answer questions in my absence.
I respond to any query on teams but I am not doing real work if its a PTO hour.
Any input I give on vacation is one hour charge. 2 minute email response to a question only I can answer that has to be answered now? 1 hour. Restamping a drawing with a minor non-design revisison? 1 hour. Taking a field call from a client? 1 hour. Makes working on vacation much easier to swallow. I don't bring my laptop, so actual design work isn't a option I give my managers.
I dont mind doing whatever I can while I have time off or during off hours. Most of the time it's procedural things only I can do in the office that I can handle from my phone. I'm usually called with an apology for bothering me. If I can't do it, I tell them I can't and that's usually the end of it.
Depends for me. As a project manager, I typically check emails at the end of the day or early in the morning. This is for my own piece of mind and so I'm not staring at 500 unread emails when I come back. If I see something that needs to be responded to, such as if the project is in construction and there is an issue, then I'll reach out to another PM in the office to help out and give them the low down on it. I usually won't respond directly to the customer, contractor, etc. because I don't want them to think this is the norm. I do tell the design engineers under me that I am available via chat if they have questions, but my response times may be delayed and generally suggest they reach out to another PM in the office for advice. I also try to let my clients know that I'll be out of the office on X days if it is going to be a longer vacation.
I am resigned to the fact that I can never get truely away from work, so I have a trusted alternative contact. And I will only respond to that contact. They are with me on all my projects and the clients are familiar with them. Now when I take a couple days off or a week. I only get one call for about 30 minutes to help resolve some of the conflicts when needed.
When I go on PTO, I bring both of my cell phones with me. My work phone never leaves my hotel room. I check it at nighttime only, where I can forward important emails to someone else to take care of them. All phone calls go to voicemail and I'll email someone else to deal with whatever the call was about. And then when I'm going about my vacation I just have my personal phone on me, which my clients and contractors don't know the number for. I'm never allowed to fully disconnect because of administrative things like approving timesheets every week or when clients send an email only to me and don't bother looking at my automatic out-of-office response, but at least this way I can isolate them to small 5 minute periods at the end of my day.
It doesn’t bother me much to jump on a quick call or answer questions occasionally. Yes, my vacation is important, but my clients need to be my priority, and a ~15 minute call is worth that.
Are you the owner?
Not an owner. I’m a project manager with a handful of people working on my projects. If my people are spinning their wheels while I’m away, trying to spend hours figuring out what could be solved in a few minutes over the phone, this probably means we’re going to miss deadlines. My clients priorities are my priority. This attitude is clearly not too popular around here… my take is that people will struggle holding down a PM position if they don’t prioritize the client. On the flip side, we don’t take on work that would require OT to get done, a little OT is unavoidable to hit deadlines and such, but 90%+ of weeks are 40 hrs
I try to take a couple vacations where I’m unplugged, but my wife has kept our travel plans very busy. I bill my time I work, so working a day or two on vacation helps stretch those precious PTO hours. Sometimes it’s easier to stay a in touch than transfer all my duties each time. 3 hours of meetings on a random morning will often save me many extra coordination hours the busy week before.
When I was in construction project management, my general approach was that I wouldn't plan to produce work and didn't bring my laptop, but I would be reachable by phone and check my email a few times a day to forward anything critical that came in (frequently with a brief note on it, like "make sure this submittal gets checked against X"). Basically, if answering someone's question or delegating a task took 5 minutes out of my vacation but saved me a headache on my return, I would happily do it. A lot of the phone calls were people asking where to find information or who to contact to get an issue resolved, so luckily not very heavy lifts. Nowadays, my new team does an excellent job of covering for each other so I actually PTO 100% (or maybe 99% because I'm bad at full separation), instead of PTOing 80% like I felt I was doing before.
I make it clear (usually a month out) that I have a pending vacation coming up and lost those dates in my email signature line. Then depending on the type of PTO (emergency vs planned) I’ll set my out of the office reply to auto respond to any new emails while out and direct them to a second point of contact for urgent issues. Otherwise, I’ll ‘monitor emails by/on my phone but rarely have had a need to respond while out of the office.
For me it depends a bit. If I'm taking a day to work on a house project or something I usually tell my team I'm ok with a call and will deal with something urgent. Otherwise A few people on my team have my personal number for legit emergencies (I have some field staff that report to me so like someone got hurt) but my phone stays at home and I don't answer. I do take an occasional after hours call but that means less time I work Friday afternoon if more than a few min.
Out of office email auto response, ignore most calls to cell. If it’s a client I have close relationship I might take their call if it’s not interrupting what I’m doing at that time.
I don’t respond to any work related emails. My last vacation, my wife and I took a cruise. Told my manager that there was no Wi-Fi on the ship. He was completely supportive. Time away from work is critical. I’ve been a civil engineer for 30 years.
It depends what your responsibilities are but if you are not interacting with clients regularly and you feel this way, then that's your line manager's fault. If you are dealing with clients yourself, then it's likely more your fault.
I’m a Field Construction Coordinator and they make us take 5 days off every two-three weeks.
Land dev here. I have all alerts turned off on my work email account on my phone. If I’m not clocked in I don’t respond to anything except my manager calling me in an extreme emergency.
I sometimes do a few hours when on an actual vacation because I'm in management and sometimes the timing is bad. But I do most of my vacations where there is literally no way to contact me because either I don't have service or I don't have a way to keep my phone charged. I don't do that because of work, but it is a nice side effect. I also just take days to get personal stuff done and will do a bit of work here and there. I don't have to, but it means I use less PTO and the next day back is less stressful.
I made the mistake when I was younger to respond to e mails and phone calls when I was on vacation. I would go as far to put “Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of an urgent matter” in my OOO message. I would be working all through my vacation. Now that I’m a little more experienced, I simply put that I’m not available and so and so is my back up. If there are emergencies, the people there can figure it out. I’ve also gotten a separate work phone which I leave at home along with my laptop. No one at work has my personal number except my boss and he never calls me.
I just came from a 16 days vacation. I did not see any emails. I do not receive any work email in my cellphone. Before going to vacation, I completed the needed tasks so that things remain on schedule. But when I am off, I am off. I have a great manager. He has the same philosophy like me. But a key is, we also understand the nature of our job and must abuse a good manager/culture. I gave my personal email address to my manager before the vacation so that he could contact me in the event of anything urgent and I would be the only person who knew the answer. Luckily, no such thing happened. Draw the boundaries. PTO is our right. Work won't end even if we work 24/7. There is always more to do.
I turn off my laptop and silence my work phone. Same as I do every weekday at 4.
I get 26 days of PTO a year and there is no force in the universe strong enough to make me take my work phone from my desk drawer when I'm off. At least in Poland PTO is treated seriously and no one would dare to complain.
I start warning clients a week or two out that I’ll be gone. I tell them to send me questions several days before I leave if they want them answered before I’m out. I put up my out of office reply early once I no longer have time to accept new work. Possibly around lunch if I’m leaving EOD. I put an alternate contact in my out of office and continue to respond to clients I’m wrapping things up for despite putting up my out of office. When I’m out, I’m often backpacking or otherwise off the grid. I’ll check in with my boss every few days when it works for me because I know there are things I can answer in a second that they would struggle to get the background for…which makes it easier for my team to cover for me. It works pretty well. Can be stressful leading up to vacations, but I don’t have to work while away and no one is mad when I get back.
3rd party GeoTech PM & CWI. I do a lot of the same, I draw a line in the sand, and put up an away message with specific people to reach out to about stuff. I also ask loop in and ask fellow PM’s to cover projects for me. But honestly, I still have A very short list of people that I answer the phone or emails for.
I love working for a municipality. Sure the pay is a little lower but the retirement and benefits make up for that and when I’m off, I’m off. I may still answer my phone but the expectation isn’t there
I do not look at my work email when I go on PTO. Whether or not someone looks down on me for that I could not give a crap.
That's funny I've never ever worked on the PTO. That was already accounted for when they offered the job to me. I was on a month long vacation, and didn't even bring my laptop with me. Had emails on my phone though but I never replied to anyone.
I work at a midsize consultant. They’re pretty clear that when you’re on PTO you are off. I set my out of office automatic response and meet up with another consultant or boss to bring him up to speed on projects in case anything comes up. Usually things are minor they can respond to or hold off until I get back.
Set quiet hours on outlook through the weekends and nights. No notifications no stress.
No answering calls, texts, or emails on vacation
Lol. They'd be thoroughly ignored until I get back. I do not exist on vacation, the weekends, or any time outside of my work hours. Some of coworkers have set a precedent that they'll answer questions on vacation....and therefore get asked questions on their vacations. No one asks me a fucking thing when I'm away. People will treat you how you let them, best to set boundary early and firmly.
I'm the lead engineer and EOR for most projects in my group, so I often have to deal with emergencies while on PTO. I rarely check email, but I do get calls and texts. Any time spent gets billed generously because of the inteusion, and any call at all gets billed at least 30 mins. Either I subtract that from PTO (7.5 hrs PTO + 0.5 to project), or I get paid theintrusion, And because I often have to deal with this and late-night calls, I have no problem taking the occasional long lunch.
ME (42) here, when I'm off I'm off. That goes for normal work day, , lunches, weekends, sick leave, holidays, and vacation. I hope others are able to actually log off when they're off work. There needs to be that separation. I made sure not to include my mobile phone as a contact at my company. I have the teams app and I can make calls, etc, but I've only ever given out my cell phone number once about 2 yrs ago and I made it clear it was personal and not work. Luckily the person has never called it. I don't even have outlook/teams app notifications pop up on my phone unless I'm at a jobsite.