First, let me set the level. I think most everyone disconnects to some extent when they take vacation/leave of some sort. Otherwise it isn’t leave. So you have said “I won’t be at work on some day and your goal is to not be tied down.

Next, for sake of argument, I am going to ignore the extreme cases. Like if a disaster destroys one of your building that hosts some resource you are an administrator on, you probably don’t want to say “sorry, I am on vacation, I will help when I return in 2 weeks”. Meanwhile, no business is taking place and you he company folds.

I am talking just your run of the mill vacation where you go with family, friends, or just yourself somewhere and do something. Maybe even just staying at home to watch the entire set of Star Wars movies (or maybe The Godfather.)

What level do you turn off to?

There’s the question, do you turn off Outlook, Teams, etc and just disconnect? Do you peek occasionally? Can you just disconnect and not look at work? Maybe you are the type that can just turn off the devices completely?

Or maybe when I wrote the word vacation you shuddered and thought about how horrible it is to take a vacation because you now have to juggle your family stuff and work at the same time. (Either way, please stop taking business calls in the restroom, or personal call…It is just weird.)

My take

I stay lightly connected. Why? Because I don’t like surprise surprises. I love surprises, like on my birthday. Here’s a gift that I don’t know what is, or maybe a card from a person you haven’t seen in a while! I don’t want movie spoilers, or even to figure out it what a present might be.

But surprise surprises are the worst. Doesn’t matter what we are talking about. A mystery package, a phone number I don’t recognize (and of course I expected a call, but I don’t know the number. Like yesterday when I was picking up a rental car, I got a call from a number and I picked up and waiting for a human who finally “Mr Davidson” (I was still suspicious, but was all good.)

Work surprises are the worst

I don’t let it take a lot of my time (like I am writing this post on vacation while someone else drives the van to Disney World to say goodbye to the current version of Carousel of Progress. Priorities!)

But big things don’t happen on my vacation schedule, they just happen when they happen. (True story.) Do I wish I could turn it off and just live that phrase that Alfred E Neumann made famous? Yes, sweet mercy yes.

Honestly, years of analytical thinking means I spend too much time thinking about whether or not a piece of real life data means something. And surprise data? Yeeks. So I tend to be happiest when I watch and things look normal when I am away from my work space, and if I need to save the world some day? I am always available.

Personal work

Personal work is a completely different beast to the type of work you can take a vacation from, especially when it is as much a hobby as work. (This isn’t a tax designation sort of thing, but rather one that asks “if you stopped doing this work, would you hurt in important ways?”).

For me writing blogs and making videos is such work. I do it for free on here and occasionally do some writing for Redgate. I do all of it for me as much as anything. I like writing and if sharing it helps someone else more’s the better. If I make a buck here or there it helps to buy Mickey shaped ice cream

On vacation I try to leave the personal work behind as well, except for times like this. I started this post in the backseat of a car and continued in a roller coaster queue. It is a great way to pass the time.

Just like my regular work though, I have to be guarded with my time and not let it get out of hand.

I can be addictive with things, and 25 years ago I would go on vacations and just write. I was writing blogs and a book and it was just a grind. Then we started at theme parks and I transferred some of my mental time there. Figuring out how to ride more and more became a form of rest that I call mental rest because it is like a really large version of a puzzle you solve in a game to stop thinking about work for a few minutes. Just stretched into a day or week and sometimes in extreme weather to add some spice.

So?

How much are you able to just turn it all off? Would you rather know that something big changed at work while you or gone, or just roll up after a 2 week trip away and find out when they tell you that your manager and their manager were let go and you are not in charge of what they used to be?

Just a bit more to wait, now back to ignoring reality.