time off

Today I joined a call on diversity, inclusion and belonging as a facilitator for an awareness session on unconscious bias. This is a voluntary role I have taken on this year at my work and I very much enjoy doing it. So much so, that I logged in on my week off to join this call and to facilitate the session.

In fairness, I had agreed to help take this session before checking my own calendar and realising I had taken this week off. It's a global call that invites participants from all across our company, from LA to Minneapolis, Ontario to Nashville and Charlotte; Glasgow to Singapore and India. They have 10s if not 100s of participants and are very tricky to schedule. I felt I couldn't very well cancel at such short notice due to my own mistake - so I joined.

Yes, I'm off this week, but this stuff is untaxing. It's an open forum to discuss and share ideas on something that, for me, is totally unrelated to my work. So I don't really treat it like work- even though I am, in a sense, paid to do it. However, I made the mistake of opening my emails just prior to the call, noticing that one of our clients seemed to be quite peeved that I had taken time off.

You tend to find that IT companies have work dropped on them from a great height (and often at the very last minute) and are expected to work miracles. For this particular project, we should have been notified weeks ahead of when we actually were. In order for us to follow our mandatory change management practices, and our approved processes for that particular client, there are several levels of approval to go through which (for non-emergencies) can take a few weeks. But regardless, since the client sees it as their utmost priority, they hence push for it to be yours too.

I started drafting a reply.

"Sirs,

My apologies for the delayed response. I am on PTO this week.

I understand this is a high-priority project, however we were only notified about it last week. Going forward, we need to make sure these requests are submitted with plenty of lead time.

On this occasion, I will look into...."

I stopped myself, muttered "auch, get a grip" to myself and deleted the email. I tend to draft what I really want to say, then walk away, grab a cup of coffee and a 5-minute natter with someone; preferably on something totally unrelated to work. When I sit back down, generally I'll look over what I have written and think, "Oh, god no, I canny send that!" and redraft the email. I used to get pulled up a great deal for the way I would speak to customers in writing. I have a tendency to be far too blunt to the point of cheek. So replying to a particularly heated exchange can take me a good 15-minutes these days.

On this occasion though, not only was the wording all wrong- but I was actually apologising for taking time off...whilst I'm still off! A word to the wise- never do that. Nobody, not employer, colleague nor client can expect to own you 24-hours per day, 365 days a year. It's simply not feasible (or legal) and is a one-stop ride to burnout. My company doesn't actually ask this of us in person, probably because they know people would push back, but they do expect our out of office messages to read "I will be checking my voicemails and emails intermittently and will get back to you as soon as possible, however if you have an emergency I can be reached at 555-555-5555." So it's implied that even when we are on paid time off, we are expected to be checking work emails and phone calls- and potentially taking phone calls from anyone that happens to email us and wants to moan. Managers are expected to take the next step. Their out of office message is meant to read "I will be checking my voicemail and emails at least twice a day." Aye, watch me. Off means off and you need to have the backbone to stand by that. Whether you are on holiday or simply don't clock-in again until tomorrow, if you are checking work emails outside of your contractual work hours, you are working for free. That's a huge no-no. Set your boundaries. Know your worth and be willing to defend it. When you work for free once, it can become an expectation that you will do it again.

Whilst those out of office messages are in the employee handbook, no manager I'm aware of has ever had the brass neck to actually ask this of their staff. The unfortunate thing however is that the occasional employee who is just really motivated by their work and doesn't mind checking emails and instant messages when they are not working ends up becoming the go-to person. It becomes an expectation that this person will always be available, and people are taken aback when they can't be reached. If you find yourself in this situation and are no longer happy with it, you need to either set firm but fair boundaries with your employer, or be prepared to walk away. We work in order to live, not the other way round.

Conscious of this, I finished up the call I was facilitating and shut down my laptop without a second glance at emails. I don't want to start setting that expectation with clients. An expectation that I can be reached even when I'm on annual leave. An expectation that could result in complaints further down the line when I can't be reached while on holiday. If it's urgent enough, someone on-shift can handle it. But if not I'll get to it on Monday.

~ Aedan.