Checking Office Stuff on Vacation

In an earlier blog, I talked about some techniques on how not to be drawn in by the siren call of the Internet when on vacation.

It must be even tougher for journalists where even regular surfing can cause you to stumble onto something related to work! So Melody Kramer, a journalist, asked her colleagues how they handled that temptation (expectation?) during their vacations.

One guy tried reading by not responding to stuff. How did that work out?

“This has, in practice, turned out to be the worst of both worlds. I’m still glued to my phone and my mind is clearly occupied by things other than the people around me, perhaps even more so than if I just took the time to respond, because I’m seething about what I’m going to do or say when I get back.”

Can you even separate work from non-work sources anymore, asked another:

“Having work email on my phone, as well as work social accounts, has blurred the lines considerably.”

Others try slowing down the inevitable succumbing to temptation:

“Sometimes, I can even leave the phone behind at home or in a hotel room for a couple of hours. I never get loose entirely — but I can slow down the rate of consumption.”

Remember that others can handle what comes up during your absence, said one:

“I’m not the first line of defense.”

Or decide on a fixed amount of time to spend on the phone and stick to it:

“I give myself a small window during the day to do this…maybe 15-20 minutes.”

Sometimes, picking vacation spots with pathetic (or no) reception is possible:

“Cell reception was so bad that the silence was like the silence of the 80′s, some deep time before the Age of the Device.”

But if someone ever finds a solution for this, Alex Balk is not exaggerating (not by much anyway) when he writes the probable response of many to that:

“96 hours outside the slipstream of rampant, predicatable dumbassery? When you finally did find out you’d probably drop down to your knees and salute your Lord and Savior for offering such an amazing respite. God, I’m jealous just thinking about that. You know what? If you are thinking of starting a cult and want to get a lot of people to join, promise them that if they accept your teachings they will never have to hear about another Twitter idiot explosion again.”

Amen to that, Alex!