Are you able to switch off from work whilst on holiday?

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I had to take the remaining days of my annual holiday entitlement otherwise I would have lost them if not taken by the year end. I started my holiday a week ago and go back on the 5th January. Although I have avoided logging into emails and have received and ignored just one call, I appear to be unable to totally ignore/forget work as I'm thinking about things I need to do in January.

Is anyone else like me in this regards, or you able to totally switch off from work? Just curious!
 
If I were off before the rest of the staff (we are a manufacturer who have an annual shut down), I'd find it fairly difficult not to check in, but once we close on Friday, I won't give it another thought.

I've learned recently that if I switch my phone off, or divert it to someone else, the world won't end, whereas a few years ago I was forever taking calls, and sending emails.
 
Ha.... I am obviously LEVEL 9999 when it comes to switching off...

I can switch off while in the office and as soon as I press Ctrl+Alt+Del I am zoned out and thinking off dinner.

As for the Christmas break, love this time of year so really will not think about work until Maybe the night before going back in but that will just be a "bollocks, cannot believe that has been 2 weeks already!"
 
I used to be dreadful for switching off. Then had a spell where it was a kind of "that's it - forget it until I go back" attitude. This year I had 2 weeks in the Dominican Republic and it took me over a week to really settle.... No idea what changed and hope it was a one-off!
 
I think Christmas is the only time off I can actually relax, as most of my customers are also off.
Holiday's through the year though, I find it very difficult to shut off... My phone is never off and I will respond to most emails.
To be honest though I prefer it that way as I am then not worrying about whats happened..
 
Can switch off. Easy, no problem.

Work to live not live to work.

This

My boss moans that he was been on email all night, my response don't fecking read them then! Especially as there is very rarely any business need for him to do so.
 
I might think about the odd thing from work for a day or two, but then that's it.

To be honest, I've been switched off for a while now.
 
I'll tell you why I find it easy to switch off; last week we had a company briefing because we've just merged with another company. After the CE had finished massaging our egos by telling us how this merger was a testament to our expertise and hard work, he entered into 10 mins of senior management bullshit and then told us (and I'm paraphrasing) all the senior managers are safe and secure as far as job losses go. For the rest of us things are little bit more foggy. He took questions where it was clear a lot of people were worried about job losses and finished off by making what sounded like a sarcastic comment. 'Finally' he said 'the most important part of my briefing, finishing times for Christmas and New Years Eve, as far as I'm concerned we finish early. The offices need to be covered for business hours as normal and managers organise a skeleton crew amongst themselves and everyone else can leave at 12.00.' Sarcastic because we have to make the time up by working longer or use TOIL.

That really made me feel appreciated, valued and give the company my all.:rolleyes:
 
What amazes me about the place I work is the utter hopelessness of senior management, year after year, decade after decade (I kid you not) to actually realise Christmas is coming and plan for it, company output wise.

One would think an event that has happened for the past 2000+ years would be expected to happen around the End of December by now. But nope.
Every year, OMG OMG, it's a short month, panic, panic, panic, all hands to the pumps, we need to run around like crazy otherwise we don't get paid (that's not true, but it's the mentality)

I feel like warning them in January that Christmas is 12 months away, so to make sure they know and plan for it, but I know they would not.

The sad part is, the, let's call them, poor workers, who just do as they are instructed all year long are the ones that get all the pressure, and needed to rush like crazy for this lack of planning.

I often despair at the utter uselessness of our management :(
 
When I was in management (durin the war) I used to worry and think about things over Xmas. Now I am back on the shopfloor I may not have as much money but I also haven't the worries that go with it. So tomorrow when I finish thats it for me until the 4th. Yippee. :clap:
 
What amazes me about the place I work is the utter hopelessness of senior management, year after year, decade after decade (I kid you not) to actually realise Christmas is coming and plan for it, company output wise.

One would think an event that has happened for the past 2000+ years would be expected to happen around the End of December by now. But nope.
Every year, OMG OMG, it's a short month, panic, panic, panic, all hands to the pumps, we need to run around like crazy otherwise we don't get paid (that's not true, but it's the mentality)

I feel like warning them in January that Christmas is 12 months away, so to make sure they know and plan for it, but I know they would not.

The sad part is, the, let's call them, poor workers, who just do as they are instructed all year long are the ones that get all the pressure, and needed to rush like crazy for this lack of planning.

I often despair at the utter uselessness of our management :(
I think your managers are cleverer than you give them credit for. That sounds like a way of manipulating the workforce to ensure people don't start to wind down a few days or even a week before the Christmas break.
 
I think your managers are cleverer than you give them credit for. That sounds like a way of manipulating the workforce to ensure people don't start to wind down a few days or even a week before the Christmas break.

Actually I'd like you to meet them before coming to that conclusion :)
Honestly you would seriously not believe the way most things are handled.

Funniest ones, was a meeting by the main boss man to address the constant issues of poor communication within the company, only that he never bothered to tell anyone there was a meeting, so they had to rush round and gather everyone up to attend the meeting :)
 
I can switch off from work while AT work. :D
"Oh look! In another half hour I'll only have another 7 hours until I go home"

Peter-Gibbons-Office-Space-Stare-at-Desk.gif
 
I'll tell you why I find it easy to switch off; last week we had a company briefing because we've just merged with another company. After the CE had finished massaging our egos by telling us how this merger was a testament to our expertise and hard work, he entered into 10 mins of senior management bullpoop and then told us (and I'm paraphrasing) all the senior managers are safe and secure as far as job losses go. For the rest of us things are little bit more foggy. He took questions where it was clear a lot of people were worried about job losses and finished off by making what sounded like a sarcastic comment. 'Finally' he said 'the most important part of my briefing, finishing times for Christmas and New Years Eve, as far as I'm concerned we finish early. The offices need to be covered for business hours as normal and managers organise a skeleton crew amongst themselves and everyone else can leave at 12.00.' Sarcastic because we have to make the time up by working longer or use TOIL.

That really made me feel appreciated, valued and give the company my all.:rolleyes:

I'll be honest, this post was probably really interesting, but I stopped reading and switched off at 'company briefing'.

This is not a dig at you @captainarchive, I just baulk at reading anything related to such boring things as company briefings/ office politics/ corporate speak - it just bores the bejesus out of me!
 
With the wife being a professional photographer then I suppose her taking landscapes on holidays was a bit of a rest from weddings, kids and dogs.

Being a firefighter, it was easy for me to switch off. Indeed I went to the other extreme and would light grass fires to see how quick the local station would turn up.:eek:

Only joking.
 
I always need to have my work phone around and periodically need to check emails. I am the only one that does my job in the company, we do have a customer services team that help a lot and can take up a lot of things when I am off but if something urgent comes through I need to respond.

It's not as bad around christmas as most of the companies I deal with will also be closed or on reduced operation during that time so its a good time to be off for me
 
I had to take the remaining days of my annual holiday entitlement otherwise I would have lost them if not taken by the year end. I started my holiday a week ago and go back on the 5th January. Although I have avoided logging into emails and have received and ignored just one call, I appear to be unable to totally ignore/forget work as I'm thinking about things I need to do in January.

Is anyone else like me in this regards, or you able to totally switch off from work? Just curious!

Nope, I'm pretty much the same as you unfortunately for me! - I love spending time with my family, but after a week or so, I'm itching to get back to a job that until very recently, I found both unfulfilling and boring. I'm not sure why I have this mentality, but I do.
When I'm on holiday, I have to turn my work phone off, otherwise I'll glance at it every time I walk past it in the house to see if there's any messages/ missed calls. I would call it delusions of grandeur, but I'm the first to acknowledge that I'm a very small cog in a very big machine, don't know why I do it. Perhaps there's a physcological (sp?) reason behind it. Probably worth noting that anyone that knows me well thinks that I'm a 'control freak' :(
 
I try to switch off but struggle with it, normally takes me about 4-5 days of being away from work before I can relax. Then once it's time to go back I can't be bothered and it takes me another 4-5 days to get used to working again. That's why for short breaks I tend not to bother switching off.
 
Actually I'd like you to meet them before coming to that conclusion :)
Honestly you would seriously not believe the way most things are handled.

Funniest ones, was a meeting by the main boss man to address the constant issues of poor communication within the company, only that he never bothered to tell anyone there was a meeting, so they had to rush round and gather everyone up to attend the meeting :)
You know your company and management better than I do but managers creating an artificial crisis is one way of ensuring staff don't slacken during certain periods, normally around big holidays. Even acting the idiot is a way of getting employees to perform tasks not in their job description, in a sort of 'Ah bless him' kind of way. I used to work for a proprietor/manager who, from some of the minor disasters he was responsible for, you would have thought he was a complete buffoon but if he was as clueless as he made out he was he wouldn't have gotten his two very successful businesses off the ground, never mind kept them going for 14 years. It was his way of getting his staff to like him and give that little bit extra towards his company.

I'll be honest, this post was probably really interesting, but I stopped reading and switched off at 'company briefing'.

This is not a dig at you @captainarchive, I just baulk at reading anything related to such boring things as company briefings/ office politics/ corporate speak - it just bores the bejesus out of me!
I agree corporate briefings and the like are universally of interest only to the person who delivers them and the senior arse-lickers around said individual. I gues that's why, at our workplace, they're compulsory.
 

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