Are you ever actually on PTO or do you still work during your time off?

The team I work with is pretty chill but we work a lot. Tomorrow (day after Christmas) is technically a company holiday, but I’ll be working pretty much all day. Supposed to be off on PTO until New Years but am still joining several calls / meetings and am responsible for multiple deliverables during that time.

I don’t see how this is actually PTO. Sure, I’m pushing off some smaller ad-hoc deliverables until 2023, but I’ll be pulling 20-30 hours while I’m “on vacation”. I love my team (not exaggerating - I’ve come to find that culture is huge) and have learnt more over the past year at my current firm than my 3 previous years of professional experience combined.

Hoping to do a trip to Thailand with some relatives come next year, and I plan on truly being off during this time. Will have laptop of course but don’t plan on being available unless it’s an emergency

8 Comments
 

I would un-log the PTO days if you're working and take it a different time. At my firm PTO means no work, I check my email ~daily and forward anything that looks urgent but my firm and team are both pretty strict about not working during time off. Obviously a bit different at D or MD

Array
 

I’ve worked in finance for nearly 15 years (investment banking for 5 years then buy side since) and never felt like I could fully unplug / not answer emails even during PTO - hoping to be better about this next year 

 

You seem to work in a similar corner of finance to me. I'm on the Equities side and even on vacation I have to do a few things:

- Answer all emails pretty much immediately from those sitting above me 

- Monitor every single company within my coverage for news on a daily basis (and pray there's nothing material or otherwise that could prompt a load of work on my end to figure out what's going on / what needs to be done / etc)

- Attend any calls that my idiot manager decides he should schedule during my vacation 

How is it like for you on the above items? Anything else that I'm missing? How much can you push back / manage against this stuff w/ superiors at the Analyst level and Senior Analyst level, respectively?

 

Every time I see my Home Screen on my iPhone I have to click on work email. I know there are not any new messages on the holidays, but I just have to know. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎

Every time I see my Home Screen on my iPhone I have to click on work email. I know there are not any new messages on the holidays, but I just have to know. 

Imagine looking like a drug dealer and pulling out two phones at dinner. Becasuse one is your own, and the other is work. That's a fun one to explain to friends & family.

The poster formerly known as theAudiophile. Just turned up to 11, like the stereo.
 

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