Unreachable when you go on vacation?
In your office, is it okay to be unreachable while taking a vacation? Do you check your email while on vacation? How much work, if any, do you do while on vacation?
In your office, is it okay to be unreachable while taking a vacation? Do you check your email while on vacation? How much work, if any, do you do while on vacation?
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I intentionally plan vacations away from cell service and WiFi and this is communicated to my supervisors.
EDIT: We're talking trips to eastern Africa, remote parts of South America, etc. Not the Caribbean.
where in S.America?
Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil.
imo its not a vacation if you're checking your phone
I check the phone at the end of each day, after I've had my fun. Take my laptop with me as a precautionary measure if any extreme emergencies need to be addressed that cannot be otherwise handled by people who are covering for me. Most "work" I'll do is maybe firing off a couple of emails.
I check emails and reply/redirect if it's a fire drill, more out of phone/notification addiction than anything, but I'm not paying thousands of dollars to work all day from a hotel room.
I reply to emails and will take calls, but nothing serious. Being available is a small price to pay for being able to take time whenever. If you’re grinding on a book, it isn’t time off.
I'll usually check my phone/emails before heading out to dinner while I'm waiting for the old ball and chain to be ready
Works out pretty well since it's dead time anyways
How long of a vacation are you talking about? 1 week, 2-3 weeks, 1 month off? Do you have assistant/analyst/associate working under you?
I see seniors taking off 4-5 weeks consecutively.
I take off seven days (I'm an analyst). Enough to not be chased by people in the office (because they know i'm back shortly) and enough to come back relaxed.
When I was in banking, we would operate on extremely lean deal teams, where it may just be me and an MD. In those scenarios, I have had vacations ruined because of work. However, when I took a two week Europe trip, I emphasized that I would not be reachable. I have probably had 50% of my trips significantly impacted by work. In addition to lean deal teams, I also worked in RX/special sits, so that doesn't help.
This was a key reason for me leaving my previous position.
-XSX
People are generally respectful of time off at my office.
But truth be told I really enjoy my job, and there's generally so much downtime when traveling I don't find it a huge burden to answer a couple of emails late at night or half sober by the pool.
^
dont work in banking but dont mind answering emails. whenever i leave people to their own devices they always screw things up so it takes longer to fix afterwards than firing off a quick email.
besides, i use work phone for roaming abroad at no cost to me so the least i can do is answer an email :-)
Working in tech and reading emails during vacation is highly discouraged.
My personal opinion is that at least in IBD:
If you are a high performer as in you have good relationship with the client and the internal deal team, taking 1-2 weeks off is fine. And if you are really good at your job, you would have 1) have a proper handover process, 2) prepare in advance on any pending issues, 3) ready to do a light email check, and 4) have client's C-suite contact that you are available to do a quick 5-10 minutes call in case the client panic. Most of the time, I think both clients and the deal team is understanding if they knew that 1) their issues is being taken care of, and 2) you will be back shortly.
On the other hand, I do find it very frustrating when people leave on vacation 1) without handing over the process, 2) don't email their deal team or their manager that they will be leaving and list down what are they working on and what issues might come up, 3) since they didn't do 1+2, when the deal team calls, they refuse to answer the call or email while on vacation. That is really bad since the client will think that the firm is dysfunction since from client's perspective, they only see the company and not the fault of individual member of the deal team so.
Completely agree, but if somebody isn't transitioning that process then wtf are they doing?
I completely disconnect but the few days prior, I get my backup in the groove. If I'm leaving on a Friday, he's shadowing Monday, trading Tuesday going forward and I'm just answering questions.
Leaving everything and everyone unprepared is horrible..that's beyond unprofessional.
Cant step away from the phone
I have answered phone calls near black out level drunk in Vegas to close a sale.
Not answer a phone
I use to be the type that didn't disconnect and would answer emails at night, but shoot them off right as I woke up.
Now fuck it, I don't even bring my work phone with me. If you need me, then you're really in trouble and it's my not my problem.
We're slaves to the system. The 3-6 weeks I take off...I take off.
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