A short note on a conundrum I faced recently

Last Saturday, I went for a family vacation 🌊🏖️ because my brother had some leaves allotted suddenly. And a family trip hadn't happened in a long time. I thought - I can work from anywhere. Right 😅 First day (Monday) was ok. But then on Tuesday, I couldn't ship much and felt really guilty. Finally I informed my bosses that I am taking a couple of days off and they were cool with it. Now I am back in my den, I have a ton of questions in my head 🤯 How do we get over this worry ? What are the best channels to be transparent about this ? How do we create boundaries between work and vacation ? Could this event be classified only as a communication failure ? P.S. I have faced this conundrum many times before. And I have always done a bad job at handling this. So I want to get better.

Has happened to me in past, I learned from the events and this thought process helps: Anticipate the issues and communicate it upfront like telling your bosses that you are traveling, you think that it would be fine but there might be a drop in productivity, if there is too much of that you would take a vacation. Some jobs require more planning and this exercise will make you think that you should simply take a vacation instead. It is still not perfect but setting clear communication and expectations is a big step forward, if not the key.

I try to follow digital Sabbath during family holidays! helps to stay away from the work and feels more connected with the family and nature.

I try to follow digital Sabbath during family holidays

I can do that when it is planned. In this particular case, it happened all of a sudden 🤷🏼‍♂️

Even if it happens unplanned, my first thought will be to register a vacation with the clients. In most cases, they will allow so since they know that you won’t give your 100% during the vacation, and that will just be their loss.

I face this issue whenever I go on a vacation and think I can work there. I just never happens properly!