You wake up in a sunny paradise, and you have nothing else to do in your hotel room before breakfast – so you slide into your Gmail account just to check on work. You’re sitting on your couch during a staycation, binging your favorite show, and you pick up your phone to check your email for a minute or two. After all, it’s not hurting anyone… is it?
A poll from Insider found that 66 percent of Americans check their work emails on vacation, and another 21 percent of respondents keep notifications on and respond no matter what. It might seem like an acceptable loophole – you’re working, but you’re not working – and you think that because you’re mentally only partially present, checking emails doesn’t have the same draining effect that being in the office does.
But checking your email on vacation, even just a little bit, has harmful effects.
Why can’t I check emails on vacation?
1. It’s not worth your health
Checking email on vacation might ease some of your anxieties about leaving work behind, but it’s certainly not worth your health. During the pandemic, the average workday got 49 minutes longer. On top of that, 33 percent of vacation days were left behind by many who thought working from home was just as good as a vacation. And unfortunately, The World Health Organization (WHO) found that those who regularly work 55 hours a week or more risk an increased chance of heart disease due to constant stress. None of that creates a good equation for knowledge workers in the post-pandemic world – so why tap into work emails on a vacation when your heart needs a break?
2. It creates a toxic company culture
By telling coworkers that you’re going on vacation and then working anyway, you’re participating in toxic office culture. Ignoring your own away messages and replying to emails implicitly tells others that they also can’t go on vacation without working. And writing email drafts to send later, almost like working in secret, also establishes an unhealthy level of intensity and addiction to work. Setting an example for your team means stepping away from your office and stepping back in when you’re recharged.
3. You’ll forget your trip
Oddly, working on vacation might actually make you remember your vacation less vividly. A study from HomeAway found that those who worked on vacation remembered more about the work than they did about the vacation. The lead researcher on the project explained to Insider that memories of vacation could be taken over by memories of work. It can also negatively impact your relationships to work when you’re supposed to be relaxing and bonding with friends and family.
4. It puts things in perspective
Taking some time away from work can really make things fall into place. Even if you’re getting emails about project updates or important client notifications, hopefully, you’ll have an away message that will handle everything or a coworker who’s willing to receive forwarded emails from especially important senders. But whatever it is that you want to answer, taking a week away will help you realize that even if it feels like the end of the world to miss an email, it’s ultimately not earth-shatteringly important (and if it is, you have some fail-safes in place).
5. It’s fueling your burnout
Beyond just the impact on your physical health, emails on vacation can negatively impact your emotional health. A study from Finland found that taking regular vacations is of the utmost importance to your mental health. Ultimately, detachment from work and relaxation are two key components that facilitate mental recovery from work. Constantly switching back and forth between a work and vacation headspace is like driving a stick and stalling the car because you’re shifting gears too quickly. Without putting emails away for a few days, you’ll never be able to cruise at one speed to rest and recover from the burnout you feel.
Tips for letting go of emails on vacation
Stepping away from your email for a week or longer can seem scarier than it actually is. What if I get a time-sensitive request? Will there be tasks that go undone because of my absence? Check out these tips to learn how to let go.
1. Turn off notifications
The first thing you need to do if you want to stop answering emails on vacation is to get rid of the temptation. Turn off all notifications for any communication app – this includes Slack messages or Teams messages. Try not to open those apps at all when you’re away and don’t worry about missing messages until you come back. You’ve also got to pick out and set a nice, polite away message that lets senders on all platforms know that you’re not checking email or instant messages at all.
2. Find support
If you know that you’re going to have emails coming in that are time-sensitive or from important clients, ask a coworker to either drop in on your inbox once a day or forward messages to them. And even if no one is keeping their eyes on your inbox, you have to trust your team to make sure everything goes well while you’re away. When you’re forcing yourself to leave work behind, you’re allowing your team to become self-sufficient and problem-solve on their own. They might even be able to use automation tools to ease some of the pressure from your absence.
3. Ask yourself why
Finally, if you’re still finding it difficult to leave work emails behind, it might be less about the content of the work and more about the emotions attached to it. Feeling an addiction-like pull back to work even when you’re chilling on the beach with a mixed drink means that there’s a deeper issue afoot. Ask yourself: is it my manager putting this pressure on me, or is it me? Is there a particular email I’m nervous about missing, or do I just have work FOMO?
Even if you’re not working, vacation time is an excellent opportunity to sit and think about why you feel such pressure to work without a break.
