3 Negative Messages You Send Your Boss When You Don't Disconnect While on Vacation

Michel Theriault
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 12:59:15 +0000

More and more managers today stay connected to the office and even do work while on vacation. This behavior cheats you, your family, and your company in the end.

Vacation time is meant as a reward—a time to relax, unwind, and refresh yourself and spend time with loved ones. It isn’t meant to be another form of “working from home.”

Have you ever wondered what it means if you stay connected even during your time off? Here are three negative things it says about you, and why it is bad for you and your company:

1. You haven’t managed very well

A good manager has things under control and processes in place to handle anything that comes up, even when he or she is not present. Even if you are the only one who can handle certain things, you should have planned for them either by changes in scheduling or working with your clients or colleagues to ensure it can wait until you get back.

If your involvement is so critical, then there is a risk that things will fall apart if you get distracted or become unavailable, which is a problem that you and your company must address.

If things go wrong, your company’s leadership won’t think it is because you are indispensable; rather, they will think you are the problem.

RELATED: Time Out! How Taking a Vacation Will Make You a Better Entrepreneur

2. You haven’t hired or developed capable staff

In most cases, management involves overseeing others who do some or all of the work activities. If you constantly need to give them direction, answer questions, or monitor them, then your employees have been poorly selected or poorly developed. As a manager, you should either hire new employees or develop the ones you have.

If you don’t have capable staff, then your company will suffer from poor performance and you will be involved in details you don’t need to be involved in, likely neglecting higher-value activities that are of greater benefit to your company. And your inability to have capable staff to take over when you are on vacation prevents you from testing your staff for promotion, development, and succession planning.

If you don’t fix this problem, your company won’t congratulate you for carrying the load, they will see you as the roadblock.

3. You are too controlling

Even if you feel you are smarter and more experienced than your staff, you’ll be surprised to learn that it doesn’t mean others can’t make the right decisions and successfully get things done. Leaving for vacation and letting go while one of your direct reports takes over isn’t a sign of weakness or putting your success at risk.

And if you won’t let go because you want to keep your power, or you don’t want to be seen as weak or unnecessary by allowing your staff to succeed and be in the spotlight while you are away, your company’s leadership won’t see you as critical to them, they will see you as an impediment to a well-functioning group with a deep pool of resources and abilities.