#academics who put a #vacation notice on their #email auto reply and then do not respond to you until they are back from vacation are my #heroes. #worklifebalance #academia #academicchatter
@girls_can This holiday, my uni made this SO MUCH EASIER by providing mobile phones (we now have flex offices, so don't get too jealous), and the coupling the 2FA to those numbers. So I left the phone at home and literally had no access to any work-related activity, even if I was tempted. In the past I tended to read mail even if I didn't answer. This year, nope. And the sky did not fall.
We're not as important as we think we are. The world keeps turning without us for a few weeks ;)
@renordquist for me, it is the dread of 1000+ emails to Wade through on my return. Coupled with all the meetings that get crammed in on the “back from vacation” week, it is more stressful to take vacation than it is to just keep working 😭. But I aspire to one day have a better system in place to let me take a break without being destroyed by the aftermath.
@girls_can I don't always get this right, but I try to make sure my schedule the week before vacation is not packed. That "one last thing" to be completed? It will be there later. And if not, well, then not. I also learned from a suggestion from @boselie to turn on my autoreply a week before hand, with the dates I'll be gone in the response.
@girls_can People then know if they are requesting something for next week, I won't be there- autoreplies show up automatically before a message is sent for our internal mail, so this cuts out a lot of work on "sorry, can't be there then" responses.
@girls_can I've also started "stealth returning". For the first two days I'm back, my Out of Office stays on. Gives me time to go through whatever came in, and start with some more deep thinking work that I usually don't get to in the day-to-day fray.
@renordquist these are great tips! Thank you!
@girls_can Ah, yes, the vacation rebound. Together with my teaching that runs until the first week in July and school-aged kids, a perfect storm. A few things that helped me: