‘I returned to find sixty bazillion emails, texts, and voice messages.’ Young Employee Wonders If She’s Asking Too Much To Disconnect While On Vacation

I am so happy that more and more people are realizing they deserve to be treated well by their employers, no matter what. It’s strange to think that wasn’t always the case, and it’s high time things change.

This OP is young and working her first “real” job. So, when she went on vacation and gave her boss access to her work email, she figured she was unplugged.

I (a 27-year-old woman) am on vacation for a week using PTO.

My work phone has been off since Saturday and my boss has access to my work computer and email.

Then her boss called and demanded she still check her email at least once a day and forward him pertinent information.

He just called my personal phone at 4:58 pm to tell me I need to check my work phone at least once a day to forward all calls/texts/emails to him.

She feels like this isn’t fair, but is she expecting too much?

To me, PTO is a chance to disconnect from work and relax and recharge. Having to check my work phone daily means I am not able to fully disconnect from work. Am I off-base with my thinking?

This is my first “real” job out of college due to graduating right before the pandemic so I’m just trying to make sure I have my norms calibrated correctly before making any decisions.

OP also says there are other red flags as far as this particular employer.

I’ve been with the company for two years and have been thinking about moving on due to inconsistent raises across the board (I found the budget spreadsheet with everyone’s salaries by accident), being expected to be available 24/7/365, and some new internal policies (can’t do next-day doctor appointments anymore and any appointments during business hours require a provider’s note, effectively making it very difficult to do job interviews).

So combined with this information that I can’t take a true vacation, it has me wanting to really put my job search plans into high gear.

Should she stay or should she go? She’s asking Reddit!

The top commenter suggests that if she stays, she should take her vacations out of wifi range in the future.

Your future vacations will have to be somewhere without reliable internet. What a shame.

LOL.

Other people have great ideas for getting around it, too.

For the most recent trip I would have claimed my charger broke and didn’t bother to replace it so I never got your message.

I also have traveled with people who legitimately leave their personal phone at home too, and really only one adult needs a phone.

Phones go on vacation for emergencies only. Period.

I take my phone on vacation only in case of emergencies, like my parents needing to talk to me about something.

And I generally check it about twice a day on vacation.

No one likes a boss like this one.

I would love to tell my boss that when I asked for the explanation letter from the (insert professional here), they responded by instructing me to tell my boss that they could (go do things that I as a reasonable employee couldn’t dare repeat), and they took such pity on me that they provided their services for free!

And thus I have no receipt as evidence of my (job interview, ahem, I mean appointment)!

Furthermore they told me that should I provide any of their information to my boss, and said boss were to contact them, they would refuse to provide any identifying information but plenty of suggestions of a vulgar nature regarding their opinions of any requests.

I, as a reasonable professional who has a special level of loathing for such boss types, offer my services (indignant vile hostility towards the offending boss) free of charge for anyone experiencing such nonsense.

Lots of people suggested she check out cruises.

This is why I did cruises for most of a decade.

They’ve started putting better internet on the ships, which is rough for that plan. But nothing says “I’m out of contact” like “here’s the emergency contact for the ship’s radio operator”

And you get to decide what’s an emergency.

I actually did this once, hiking through Canyonlands National Park for a week. I spent MONTHS preparing people for the fact that I would be completely out of touch. Constant reminders in the weeks leading up, the week before I left individually reminding everyone that I could not be contacted. My out of off message said this very clearly.

I returned to find sixty bazillion emails, texts, and voice messages about how something was needed NOOOOOOOOOW and why wasn’t I responding and how I was the worst co-worker ever blah blah blah. My boss flipped out on me for not responding in the midst of an emergency–that I’m sure you all are shocked to discover was not actually an emergency.

For the love of all that was holy, I worked in fundraising; nothing I did could ever be considered an emergency. There were some serious issues there, I only lasted a few more month.

This is all really solid advice,

But also, other jobs are out there. Probably time to find one.