You're on Annual Leave. So Why Are You Still Working?

I'm writing this while on holiday in Greece, having already answered several work emails and taken a few calls this week. Which probably tells you everything you need to know about how successfully I've mastered the art of switching off.

I know I shouldn't be doing it. I've given the same advice to managers over the years about taking proper breaks, delegating responsibility and not making themselves available around the clock. Sensible advice, so why can't I follow it!

The thing is that nobody has actually told me I need to work while I'm away. In fact, I work for myself. I'm my own boss, so if anyone should be able to give me permission to switch off, surely it's me! And yet here I am, answering emails and taking calls when I should be deciding what to have for lunch.

Apparently, I'm not very good at following my own instructions. And I know I'm not alone in this. Anyone who has managed a care service will recognise the Sunday afternoon phone call, the message that starts with "Sorry to bother you, I know you're off..." or the straightforward question that turns into half an hour of sorting something out.

Sometimes it genuinely is urgent. In the care sector, there will always be situations that need an immediate response, but plenty of things don't. They've just become things that people are accustomed to asking the manager to deal with. Once you've shown that you'll answer, even when you're not supposed to be working, it becomes very difficult to stop.

The unwritten expectation

I've worked in organisations where leaders were actively encouraged to take their annual leave and reminded about the importance of work-life balance.

I've also seen those same people contacted while they were away because somebody needed a decision, couldn't find something or wasn't sure how to address a situation.

It wasn't through any deliberate disregard for their time off; they just knew they would get the answer.

That right there is the problem! When you're known for being responsive, reliable and willing to sort things out, people naturally come to depend on it. Initially, it can feel quite reassuring to know that people 'need' you and you are that trusted, go-to person.

Eventually, you realise that being trusted to deal with everything has developed into being expected to deal with everything. No one has said you must be available evenings, weekends and holidays, but it has become an unwritten expectation.

And then there's the 2am message...

I'm sure most managers have encountered that one colleague who apparently doesn't sleep. I once worked with someone who regularly sent emails and Teams messages at two or three in the morning. Nothing urgent, just something they'd remembered, a question they wanted to ask or a piece of information they'd forgotten to pass on earlier.

Now, I have absolutely no objection to someone working at whatever time suits them. If you want to catch up on emails at 2am, that's entirely your choice, but please don't assume the rest of us are awake too.

The difficulty when you work in care is that you can't always switch your phone off completely. There may be a genuine emergency, and you need to be contactable.

So the notification comes through, wakes you up, and you lie there telling yourself not to look at it. Obviously, you look at it! Now you've read it, you're thinking about it. You then remember something else you need to do, then something else, and before you know it, your brain has decided the working day has started. At two in the bloody morning!

The person who sent the message has probably gone back to sleep, blissfully unaware that they've just ruined yours.

I don't think people always appreciate the effect of contacting colleagues outside working hours, particularly when those colleagues have responsibilities that mean they can't simply make themselves unavailable. There's a difference between being contactable for an emergency and being accessible for every passing thought someone has in the middle of the night. A plea from me, please become familiar with the 'schedule send' function!

Sometimes it's easier just to answer

I think this is the part that gets overlooked when people talk about setting boundaries.

It's easy to tell someone not to check their emails while they're on holiday.

But what happens when they return? If you've been away for a week and come back to several hundred emails, decisions that haven't been made, issues that have been passed around and a list of people waiting to speak to you, the first few days back can be miserable. And you know that before you go. So you decide to spend fifteen minutes checking your inbox, answer a couple of straightforward questions, deal with something that might otherwise become complicated and reassure yourself that at least you won't be returning to complete chaos. Except fifteen minutes has a habit of becoming forty-five, and then before you know it, you are sunburnt but have got loads of work done.

I don't think it's always a case of us not being able to switch off. It's because switching off completely can create more work when we return. That's always been my experience.

Are we making ourselves indispensable?

How much of this do we contribute to? When you've spent years being the person who sorts things out, stepping away isn't always easy. You know the service, the people, and you can often resolve something in five minutes that might take someone else a lot longer, so you just do it. And every time you do, you reinforce the idea that contacting you is the quickest and easiest solution.

I don't think that's about wanting to be indispensable. In my experience, it's often the opposite. You want things to run smoothly and you don't want colleagues struggling unnecessarily. But there comes a point when being helpful can prevent other people from developing the confidence and authority to make decisions themselves. That assumes there's someone available to make those decisions in the first place.

Not every manager has a capable deputy, sufficient senior support or arrangements for covering their absence. And telling someone to delegate when there's nobody to delegate to is about as useful as telling them to relax.

I think we place far too much responsibility on individual managers to establish boundaries without always looking at the working arrangements around them.

We tell them they need to take proper breaks, but have we made sure somebody else can make the decisions that need making? Are people genuinely authorised to act, or are they expected to hold everything until the manager returns?

And most importantly, do senior leaders respect those arrangements themselves?

It's difficult to persuade a manager that they shouldn't be checking emails on holiday when they're receiving messages from senior colleagues who know perfectly well they're away. Even if the message doesn't require an immediate response, the fact that it's arrived can create a sense that it needs dealing with. Especially when the sender is someone you report to.

I don't think organisations deliberately expect their managers to work every waking hour, but I do think some have become accustomed to a level of availability that would be questioned in many other professions. Because managers continue to make it work, the problem remains largely invisible.

I'm still working on it

I'd love to finish this by saying I've learned to switch off completely, leave my phone alone and return from annual leave feeling wonderfully refreshed, but that's nonsense.

I'm still answering the occasional email, still taking calls and still convincing myself that dealing with something now will make life easier when I get back. Sometimes it will, but I am becoming more conscious of how easily availability becomes an expectation, even when nobody has actually asked for it.

I also think we need to be more realistic about what we're asking of Registered Managers and senior leaders. Care services need effective leadership outside normal office hours, and there will always be genuine emergencies. That doesn't mean the same person should be permanently available to deal with every question, problem or decision.

Taking annual leave shouldn't require someone to choose between working while they're away and returning to an unmanageable workload. Rather than continually telling managers to set better boundaries, organisations should be asking why those boundaries are so difficult to maintain in the first place.

As for me, I'm going to attempt to enjoy the rest of my holiday without checking my emails, well maybe...