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I work on a six person team. I worked for a large regional employer, and we merged with another, similarly large regional employer last year. Three of us are from one side of the company, the other three are from the other. I reported to a director, but during the merger, the three of us from my side were reorganized to report to a manager on the other side, who now reports to the director I previously directly reported to.
The SME was answering emails all day on PTO. I'm sure he was deducted the PTO hours, but the culture is one where you can't break away.
How pressured are you to answer emails/VMs while on PTO?
Pressured? Not really. But do I do it? Sure. Personally, I rather keep "a finger on the pulse" of what's going on. It simply helps me stay organized and minimize the risk of being blindsided with a large development or buried under a ton of work the day I get back.
This holiday was the first year we had pressure. My boss said “it’s a busy time of year. If you’re on PTO you need to make sure you check emails and take care of business”.
Sometimes I need to respond to something, it's situational. If something is going on that's an obvious issue, it'd be irresponsible to just call it my own time and ignore the problem. I'll make up the time somewhere else (come in late, leave early, etc.)
I won't check email or messages, but people generally know when it's important enough to call me on a day off
Pressured? Not really. But do I do it? Sure. Personally, I rather keep "a finger on the pulse" of what's going on. It simply helps me stay organized and minimize the risk of being blindsided with a large development or buried under a ton of work the day I get back.
Same here. No pressure whatsoever but I’d rather keep up than be buried or blindsided when I return. 75% of what I do can be via email on my phone. The other 25% can wait but if I set expectations on the fly, people appreciate it. Plus, it gives me wonderful standing when I want to leave work early or keep flexible hours...for which I don’t seek permission. It’s like an insurance policy if you will called goodwill. My job isn’t stressful so it’s just the art of keeping things moving and on track. Easy/peasy.
I never check voicemail when i am out if the office. As with some others, I do periodically check email and answer selectively. I limit my email to once/day, forward a few items, answer a few questions to keep things moving, and ignore most.
If I spend any significant time on email or whatever while I am off I document it and count it as hours worked, and submit my PTO hours accordingly. Last year I did have a large project that I needed to put some time into, so while I was out of office for 10 days, I used only 8.5 or whatever days of leave.
Im basically always on call. There are 2 of us and my partner takes care of anything he can do remotely and I go into the office if there is a hardware issue. I live closer to work so its best for us both.
If I am on vacation or out of town there is no pressure to answer or reply to anything but I try to if i am available to do so.
This holiday was the first year we had pressure. My boss said “it’s a busy time of year. If you’re on PTO you need to make sure you check emails and take care of business”.
Unbelievable...
A lot of American employers don't understand what personal time/vacation is. Things like that don't happen in Europe because people value their personal time.
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