Guilty, No Question About it.

Last week, I was out on vacation! The past seven years, I have wrestled with the question – Should you work while on vacation? I have been extremely guilty in the past of doing too much work, while on vacation. I have to think way back, when being connected was impossible to really remember when I have not worked on vacation. There were no big plans, no travel destinations way out there – it was supposed to be about my wife and I (and our family). It was our 29th anniversary last week! Just spending time together, something we both enjoy doing together.

My goal for my vacation was not to log into work and do work. I really needed some down time to focus in on myself. I failed, somewhat… I was significantly better than in past vacations. Why better, but still a failure. I did take some brief moments and do some work. I did not grab the laptop and log into work, but I did use my blackberry to answer some emails. I was officially caught by my wife when we were out and about, I pulled out the smart phone and answered someone back on an email. She asked, was it really that important? Well, not really. Feeling guilty – I decided that I would not do anymore, I failed time and time again. I think I answered at least one per day. I did not answer them in front of her…

Have we turned our downtime into limited downtime? When I was a manager, I was really guilty of this. I started to notice that my folks, were guilty of this as well. Did they follow my example? Did they witness an unwritten or spoken expectation that they need to work on their vacations as well. How did all this get started? Should we pull the plug on always connected? I understand that this is a personal thing.. We all have to do what we like and think is necessary. The example we set, may have an effect on others that are watching.