[Closed] Do you dread coming back to work after leave/time off...

Citalopram helps me deal with it.

HTH.

I usually winder whether my pass will still work or if someone will now have my desk.

I usually winder

Post war cuts to the gendarmerie? 😆

Being party to support emails, I get 1500-2000 emails a week. I read about 200-300 of them, that's always fun when I go back.

Otherwise, it's just a worry about somebody having done something wrong that will result in a lot of work for me when I get back.

I have a few rules to mitigate the first day back stress.

1. No meetings in the first 4 hours back.
2. Late start - no earlier than 0930
3. Read only 3 days emails, mark the rest as read - they will email again if it is important.

Put in place when a couple of colleagues had heart attacks on the first day back from leave.

You are defo not alone.
When I first set up in business 20+ years ago I found it easier working the weekends as well then 2 days crap would not end up on my Monday desk and no Monday morning feeling as everyday rolled into the next, soon realized this was not the way forward,like you say if you`re off for a day or a week there is still a load of complicated stuff to come back to with the nice easy tasks cleared,the other lads always came back to a clean tray , not anymore!!

Yes, I also get stressed before I go away and often during my time off. I think its the nature of our "always on" work culture and the march of technology. I used to work with a guy that took his work laptop on holiday and every morning he read and responded to his Emails. You may think thats mad but he argued that it allowed him to relax and enjoy the rest of each day as oppose to not logging on and being anxious throughout his holiday. I get the logic in that.

Hate it. Feel like there's two weeks work to do before I go and the same again when I get back but I only went for a week!

It does put me off taking leave.

I should imagine that life must be very stressful, regardless of work load earning 90k+ p.a. as a GP. 😛

Do you dread coming back to work after leave/time off

Every monday buddy, every single monday...

Yes. Hundreds of pointless emails.
I am at a point where I hate my job (20yrs + of Policing) more and more officers have left the job, cuts etc. But at my age and with my qualifications I couldn't get a similar paid job anywhere else.

You may think thats mad but he argued that it allowed him to relax and enjoy the rest of each day as oppose to not logging on and being anxious throughout his holiday. [i]I get the logic in that[/i].

I can see the logic, but it's no good for me. It takes me three or four days to switch off from work - only after that can I get my good relaxing done.

Thank you for your email. As I am currently on leave until dd/mm/yy it has automatically been deleted. Please try again upon my return or if urgent contact forename.surname@company.co.uk.

^^^^^ that's what I do on recommendation from our union.

It's a good union.

(Don't actually delete, just move into a folder somewhere, so I can find the automated ones that I might need later......)

i came back from my last leave to find i had been booked on a 5.45am flight on the monday morning.

My laptop didnt work

my PPE was all in another country.

Was interesting watch them all scramble to sort it when i dropped the bomb that i wasnt landing in uk till sunday night when they gave me "heads up" on the friday.

I've got a work iPhone which I'll take with me on holiday (separate to my personal phone)
I generally look at my emails every 2-3 days and delete/forward/file as appropriate.
It de-stresses my holiday as I know the monkeys aren't trashing the place whilst I'm away, and I know what I'm coming back into.

jimdubleyou - Member

Being party to support emails, I get 1500-2000 emails a week. I read about 200-300 of them, that's always fun when I go back.

Otherwise, it's just a worry about somebody having done something wrong that will result in a lot of work for me when I get back.

I find the 'clutter' feature on Outlook really helped with that.

A locum for a day's leave? I wouldnt have bothered TBH, could your PM have not just cancelled your session s for the day?

Can't for a minute think that was cost effective

^^
We're a small practice, so cannot simply cancel clinics if we take leave..

Plus it's not the 'face to face' - that's the easy part of the job nowadays - it's the hospital letters, tasks etc etc...

DrP

Erm, bit of a mixed bag for me.

Downsides, I'm the only one that does what I do in my place, only 1 other person can actually do what I do, that's the boss - he 'fire fights' for me when I'm off, but he can barely his stuff these days without trying to cover for me. Also we tend to be on holiday one after the other in August, he takes the first week, me the middle two then he takes the last one. I usually come back to a LOT of work to do. I also keep on top of things on Hols which I shouldn't do, but I do.

Upsides, I'm not very good at taking holidays I get bored and start feeling lazy after a few days, by the end of the fortnight I'm climbing the walls and can't wait to get my brain working again.

I hate coming back to the emails. But I think part of the problem is that I hate having to go back anyway.

km79 - Member

Thank you for your email. As I am currently on leave until dd/mm/yy it has automatically been deleted. Please try again upon my return or if urgent contact forename.surname@company.co.uk.

Public Sector?

I really wouldn't be impressed if I got that, it goes against the whole point of e-mail, it's not an instant messenger - would you have someone in your office return all your post with a note "try again in 2 weeks".

I have to admit, I might have 'accidentially' dated my return date in the past to give me a day to catch up before the 'urgent' calls started.

My current (small) employer have an annoying habit of being very happy to find fault with people's work, and not being too keen to reward good work.

I used to get very stressed about coming in to a bollocking, but they've taken to texting me on my days off instead, so all is well 🙄

This is why promotion doesn't interest me 😆 sod that!! What's the point of time off if you have to worry about going back? How can you "unwind"?

Get this feeling every Sunday evening. Hate coming back after just a weekend off. Still would never stop me from taking leave though. Job just provides money for bills etc and funding the time off. I'd stop working in a heart beat if money allowed

Plus it's not the 'face to face' - that's the easy part of the job nowadays - it's the hospital letters, tasks etc etc...

Can the [s]temps[/s] locums not do those tasks too? Sounds like you need to review the contracts for them to include those tasks.

I really wouldn't be impressed if I got that, it goes against the whole point of e-mail, it's not an instant messenger - would you have someone in your office return all your post with a note "try again in 2 weeks".

It is the grown up approach IMHO

The way I look at it is that I have x amount of stress to come out, and its going to come out one way or the other. Earning a decent living doing a "stressful" job will make me stress about work, but if I had a simpler, less well paid job I would be stressing about not earning enough to pay for things, or being without a job would bring on a load of other stresses. I have been in all these situations and the "work stress" is the lesser of the evils.

But in answer to the OP yes, every time I have any amount of time off I spend the next 2 or 3 days back at work looking at business to buy in spain, or trails to thru hike in the US and am generally suicidal about being at work

My colleague picks up my emails when I am on holiday. The junk is deleted immediately and 95% of the remaining emails are sorted before I get back. I usually end up with 2-3 emails that I have to action on my return.

I used to check and respond to emails when on holiday but realised that its not right and not fair to the rest of the family.

Public Sector?

Nope, a large private company. It's only set to auto reply to internal emails, not external from clients etc. Some people don't like it, I've been running it for about 2.5 years now and had a number of complaints but **** them. I have had far more positive responses though thinking it's a good idea.

It's nothing like returning post, most of the internal emails are pointless shite in the first place, some are from people who know I am off and trying their luck dropping some actions on me, the rest can email me when I get back (although seldom do, so they must have managed fine without me).

When I take leave I am taking time away from work, I don't do 52 weeks of work condensed into 46 weeks. That's a mugs game.

Nope. Fundamentally if something important had happened then either my boss, one of my staff or another colleague would have to work on it. I'm entitled to leave so won't get stressed at taking it. Easy enough to sort stuff when i get back if the ones who report to me can't fix it

Thank you for your email. As I am currently on leave until dd/mm/yy it has automatically been deleted. Please try again upon my return or if urgent contact forename.surname@company.co.uk.

I do something similar, but more broken down.

"I'm on annual leave until XX/XX/XX with no email or phone access. Emails will automatically be archived until that date, so to ensure you get the help you need, here's who to contact (but please allow a bit of time for them to pick up on things!):

For sales enquiries XXXXXX
For creative supply XXXXXX
For billing/invoicing enquiries XXXXXX

For anything else, drop me a line after XX/XX/XX when I'm back"

Sadly, there are always people who reply to autoreplies asking if I've read it (during the "time off" dates), so they get auto deleted when I get back.

It's super important to have time for yourself, to reiterate and manage people's expectations that you are not "always on", and that if you've provided them the right people in your absence, they should rely on that person.

Can the [s]temps [/s]locums not do those tasks too? Sounds like you need to review the contracts for them to include those tasks.

Unfortunately my industry (specifically being a partner) suffers from being on teh wrong side of teh supply/demand see-saw...

Locums can demand £90/hr (which costs me circa £110 with on costs) and dictate what they will/won't do...
And there's enough demand that they can just naff off to another practice if you kick up a fuss.

Hence, why primary care in the NHS will collapse if the partnership model falls down...

DrP

Absolutely, first day back after a week off tomorrow - a mixture of extreme terror and despair. Quite honestly the stress is to the point that I take at the most a week off a year just to placate Mrs Nipper and have done this since 2010 with the effect that I'm 'quite tired' now. Hey ho.

Last week I booked all my remaining Night Shifts off, so all I've got now is around 50 something Day Shifts until I retire at the end of May. 😀

You just have to be prepared to deal with it, a lot of those emails will be "general enquiries" or corporate information (in my world) or colleagues who have forgotten you are away, or simple "cc'd for info" where actions arising will normally have been taken care of or salient points left to you.

I used to be one of those guys who took both a phone and needed access to mails whilst away, I must have looked a right twunt.

However, getting the right "help/replacement" in for short periods in any work environment is both tricky and full of woe. Even some close colleagues, you think you'd trust, have rather odd ways of "passing the buck" on your behalf.

I used to be one of those guys who took both a phone and needed access to mails whilst away, I must have looked a right twunt.

For the last few years I've always added a day to my return date on my auto reply. It just gives me a day to read/filter emails and workload and prioritise my work. That way when people think you're back and ring at one min past 9 to "just wanted to catch you before you are bogged down in emails, but I sent one last week and....."
Unfortunately emails are an unavoidable necessity now a days.

Wow I must be lucky..never had a job I've hated...(I'm not trying to be smug)..

I get the fear going back after a piss

It's not so much the email sludge to be waded through it's the knowledge that nothing will have changed that kills me on return. Knowing i have a break booked keeps me going, on return there's nothing ahhead.

Holy moly, I wish all I had to worry about was going back to some emails!
Join the prison service. You'll still get emails but you won't have time to read them, you'll be too busy being assaulted (verbally or physically) stopping fights, calling for healthcare....etc etc etc.
Then things go pear shaped & some dopey boss says, 'didn't you read my email'?

No. love my job, get a bit bored/twitchy if I'm away for too long (bit of a sticking point with me and the OH as she likes 2 week blocks off). Being self employed helps, would hate to be counting the days or knowing that all the time off was used up.
That said I hat going away but not being busy beforehand, nothing worse than going on holiday after a barren patch. That said it hasn't happened that often.

Just remembering how it used to take me 7 days to wind down, even then work popped into my head from time to time. Then there was the worry of going back. So out of a 2 week holiday probably 10 days were spoilt! Don't have that problem now luckily, I ditched them.

thestabiliser - Member
I get the fear going back after a piss

Honestly made me laugh out loud.
I can empathise though,I regularly take client calls whilst sat on the throne,very surreal at times ...

Trailblaiser

I'd second Citalopram, and raise you a Zopiclone to drop off the night before.

I don't enjoy my work much these days.

Still here.... Though it's nearly all done now...

DrP

I am going away for December. I'll let you know in January 😉 Have done what I can with scheduling, training and documentation.

I dread it the day before and the longer the break the more the dread but then once I'm back actually it's fine and I usually enjoy being back after a rest. Just build it up in my mind.

Yep. First day back today, after a week from hell where I was burgled and lost all my work kit (amongst lots of other stuff)

Spent the first hour convincing security I was me, and could I have a new pass and locker key. Then straight into 2 interviews where I had 5 mins to prep and read the cvs followed by a mgmt meeting then a 2hr kickoff where I had to lead on visioning and run a workshop on corporate governance (having lost all my notes and prep, so I had to wing it)

I genuinely did not even open email today. I'm knackered and In need of taking a holiday....

Visioning? Does that involve Peyote and a spirit guide?

As was suggested up there. For me anything longer than a week and I add a day to catch up and figure out if anything important has happened.

I dread the return, full of worry, that everyone else will have polished off the biscuits. But there's still loads left usually, makes it look as if I'm the only one that eats them.

Only really get a bit narked if someone else has dropped a big tree I'd had my eye on.

3. Read only 3 days emails, mark the rest as read - they will email again if it is important.

This, I often ignore emails to see if they'll email again, or call. If they don't I just file it away or delete it as it obviously wasn't that important.

I'd second Citalopram, and raise you a Zopiclone to drop off the night before

I didn't find Zopliclone at all effective, even at twice the max dose, still only got about 1-2 hours sleep when I was really ill with anxiety. Citalopram worked like a charm though, was back to 6 hrs sleep in a week (40mg IIRC).

I've always been a worrier whilst on hols. The closest I've come you a resolution is a decent handover and a decent manager who has your back whilst away (ie; if it happens whilst you're off they'll deal with it). Not perfect but a start. W@nker bosses make holidays pretty pointless.

Spent 23 years working for the same company and towards the end it was hell - couldn't enjoy a nights sleep, never mind a week off. As a senior manager, had people ringing me up, who knew full well I was on holiday - and lost my shit at them on numerous occasions. Dreaded going back.

Have run my own business for 7 years now and the stress levels are very manageable/non-existant. Will never work for anyone ever again!

I dread time off, took 4 days out of the business a couple of weeks ago plus the Sunday so 5 days in total and came back to a load of crap, 100's of orders not processed, invoices hidden, and stock not where it should be, as well as a raft of emails, then the boss says glad your back I'm off so I have my work, his work and sorting out for the monkeys that I work with.
Last time I took a whole week off I ended up going in part way through the week to sort things out.
Sacking a couple of the useless idiots I work with would make things better in a small team it's not fair on the others to have to carry lazy muppets,

Going back to work after time off as a mechanic is easy using the mantra shit breaks I'll fix it when I fix it join the que. If you try to que jump or rush me you go to the back again. People soon get the message and your left to do your job with out those interruptions that pile on the stress.

It is a worrying trend in your profession DrP. The issue is that they get a bundle of smart people give them lots of training. Then stick them in a mundane job. To be honest, that sounds like the worst situation and the only reason for doing it could be the money. But, you get the money. That is the contract you made for yourself. We all choose our jobs for different reasons, looks like you might need to reconsider. But DrP, the problem is that someone in that situation can get a bit sloppy. For lots of other jobs, that might not be so important, for yours it is very serious. We have all seen or experienced shoddy misdiagnoses or poor treatment from highly paid professionals like yourself. I don't claim this to be the case with you, but I can't help feeling that you have a relatively simple job, just do it to the best of your ability and when it gets tedious, recognise that that is why you get paid pots of money for doing a routine job.

I have almost no responsibilities in a dysfunctional office.

Leave is a great pleasure. As is being absent without leave. I'm not sure anyone notices.

🙂

I find it hard to go back to work on a Monday let alone after a week or two off.

Work is fairly stressful most of the time. Some days are better than others - a non-communicative boss 150km away, a few angry parents trying to cause trouble, slow pace that anything gets done at drive me to distraction.

There are days where I write a long email with things that must be discussed and actions put in place, to only delete it, as I know sending it will only frustrate me even more when I get no response to the questions asked.

I've signed for a further two years, 20 months left and the end feels a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally long way off and yet tomorrow it might be grand.

I know I swing from happy to low, I've been aware of it for quite a few years, it never really verges on the manic, but I have hit some fairly low points here. really I should probably do something about it, but then what?

I'm self employed so I never, ever stop working. Even when I'm out walking the dog or going for a ride, I'm thinking about work. It's a choice I've made so I can't feel bitter about it. Ups and downs. Be grateful you have a job 🙂

i used to carry a phone with my emails on and reply at all hours.....

then one day i realized - they don't pay me enough for this shit if the place burns down because i reply to an email outside working hours then it was beyond my help (and its not in my contractual obligations)

my work phone is now an old nokia dumb phone and it goes in a drawer at the end of the day OFF and the only person that has my personal mob is my direct manager. He really will only ever call me if the place is burning down and never if im on prebooked leave.

When pushed on the matter - i pointed out my father had a heart attack at my age through stress. If you want me to get stressed about shit out side the time your paying me for you'll need to pay me a hell of a lot more. thats not to say i dont care and i will work late / early if needs be but if it wasnt burning when i left then the onduty engineer can take care of it and if he cant then my manager can decide who needs to deal with it - and ill get my call that way. - filters out the trivial shit.

^ I have turned off autoupdate on emails now for that reason. I got sick of seeing emails from problem folk just before I went to sleep.

I sleep a lot better now knowing I don't need to worry about work emails.

I use the favourites thing on my phone, friends and family are in it plus one person from work who knows they can get to me, otherwise its on that. And i don't open my work email at all now. A holiday is exactly that, i've cancelled 2 this year and i don't do anything important enough to warrant that.

sifting through amassed emails is a cushty few days at my desk after a jolly, kick back, headphones on, gently ease back into things...

Emails appear to be the bane of most peoples lives now at work, they`re a handy way to pass the buck "oh, I sent you an email" I reply " so what?" 😀

I have had more senior colleagues set an auto reply saying "I am on leave, your email has been deleted", with the thought that they'll get back in touch if its important when they are back.

I also love a sarky auto reply as well 😀

"If you're that bothered my works no is XXXXX" 😉

I dread it completely. I am relatively insignificant in my place. However I am more suited to leisure activities and rest than actual work, my work phone is switched off until I return, life's too short.

The thing about work is that it is designed never to be completed. IF you want to control it to the extent it stops and starts at your whim, you're in for a shock.

So, worrying about the build up of work when you're not there is futile - people will send emails, they'll do things/not do things. And when you're there you'll have work to do. You can't stop it.

So, unless you don;t need to work, learning to accept the state of affairs is your first task. After you've accepted it, start developing strategies to protect that acceptance.

I don't dread going back. It might cross my mind what someone else has asked me to do in order to make them look good but I don't play that game

As for emails CTRL-A followed by delete works really well

but I can't help feeling that you have a relatively simple job

You are aware I'm a GP, in the NHS, in 2016, aren't you?? (rhetorical question, BTW)

Jeesh... this is what we're faced with 🙄

DrP

I'm fully aware of that. I'm also aware that a lot of your time is taken up by administration and procedures. You see a very limited range of medical complaints, in the main. Most consultations are dealt with within 15 minutes. More serious and more rare complaints are often overlooked, precisely because they are uncommon. When diagnosed, the tend to be referred to a specialist, rather than dealt with by a general practitioner.

The level of complexity you have to deal with in the main is not great. When compared to large scale long term projects which other professionals deal with

CM you are trolling right?

Or do you actually believe that crap?

Either trolling or not... If the latter I'll get the biscuits....

I'm aware that it is controversial and that it would lead to arguments, but the evidence is there. Look at common primary care diagnoses, look at gp surgery times. Look at administration.

I'm not posting this stuff from speculation.