Catching up with work emails after annual leave/holiday/sickness etc

[Dublinblue]

I hate it. I basically take one of three approaches, none of which is ideal:

#2 for me. I'm not brave (or should I say senior) enough for #3!). Also I tell people I'll be away so they know to ask elsewhere. Helps a bit.

[Optimistic Nick]

#2 for me. I'm not brave (or should I say senior) enough for #3!). Also I tell people I'll be away so they know to ask elsewhere. Helps a bit.

I did 1 for the first 10 years of my career. Now I am a bit more senior - if I am away for 2 weeks I try to avoid option 1 and go for 2 or 3. 3 is ballsy: i did it when I took a month of emergency parental leave during lockdown. If its a week I tend to keep on top of emails instead.

And telling people absolutely helps. I also put upcoming annual leave in my email footer so colleagues and clients know I'll be off and that tends to work quite well too.

To be honest the only time I've ever managed to have a proper break from work though is either that glorious week or two between jobs; or when I worked for a bank for a few years and they had a policy of everyone having to take at least a 2 week break where they handed in their laptops, phones and staff passes and were not allowed to be contacted. For many of the people this was a regulatory requirement but they extended it (either deliberately or through ignorance) to people like me, too. And that was great.