Why You Should Avoid Checking Work Emails on Days Off

How NOT to work on vacation. If you’re on vacation, I hope you’re not reading this. I hope you're off the grid, soaking in the quiet—or the joy—and letting your mind rest. But if you're still here, maybe this will help. It took me years to stop checking work emails while I was supposed to be on vacation. I used to think that staying connected would make me a better entrepreneur. More credible. More in control. That’s the credibility trap—the belief that constant work equals worth. But always being “on” comes at a cost. Chronic stress. Diminished focus. And ironically, lower productivity. Here’s what I now do to actually disconnect (rewriting my handwritten list so you can read it): 1 - Make rest a requirement, not a reward. 2 - Set clear expectations with clients and your team. 3 - Block time off on your calendar way in advance—in ink. 4 - Finish work early in the week. 5 - Ease out of work a few hours (or days) before you leave. 6 - Set your out-of-office reply. 7 - Delete your work email from your phone. 8 - Plan your return week to avoid reentry shock. 9 - Don’t pack work. 10 - Don’t plan to think about work. But if ideas come, jot them down and let them go. 11 - Close the office to open strong: clean your desk, empty your inbox, water the plants. 12 - And remember: true emergencies—rare as they are—can usually be handled by someone else. In France, we even made this a legal right: Le droit à la déconnexion—the right to disconnect. It protects your personal and family life by keeping work from bleeding into every hour of your day. So this summer, if you can, take a real break. You, your business, and your brain will thank you.

It's 08:07 on Saturday morning and one of my clients, a brilliant senior TA, texted me: “Is it bad I’m already checking emails? I just want to get ahead of Monday.” I paused. Not because I didn’t understand but because I’ve heard this exact sentence before. Too many times. That quiet tension, the one TA teams feel when they know they should rest but can’t, is real. And it’s growing louder. Here’s what I’ve learned after working with dozens of TA professionals and leaders: It's not just hiring managers pushing timelines, or overflowing reqs or the tech tools that never quite work the way they should. It's the reality that candidates are searching for jobs 24/7. Candidates are always on. They apply at midnight. They message at 6 AM. They follow up on Sundays. And so, slowly but surely TA teams start waking up on Saturdays feeling the urge to check in. To make sure someone hasn’t slipped through. To feel “caught up.” To reduce that Sunday night anxiety before it even starts. But here’s the thing: You weren’t hired to be 24/7. You were hired to be strategic. To build high-quality pipelines. To help teams grow through people, not panic. And yet the pressure to be immediately responsive creates this warped equation: Speed = success. But you and I both know that’s not true. Speed without clarity leads to churn. Speed without process leads to burnout. Speed without strategy leads to regret hires. So what’s the alternative? From what I’ve seen, the best TA teams don’t chase urgency. They build intentional systems to create space: ✅ Pre-written email templates with weekend boundaries ✅ SLAs and expectations that you own and communicate ✅ Strategic planning before Friday ends, not during Saturday coffee And perhaps most importantly: They give themselves permission to log off, not as an act of defiance, but as an act of professionalism. Because no candidate is worth sacrificing your health, your time, or your joy. You’re not lazy for resting. You’re not uncommitted for disconnecting. You’re not bad at your job because you don’t reply at 9 PM. You’re strategic enough to build a process that works without sacrificing your peace to serve someone else’s panic. If you feel this, know you’re not alone. And if you’re ready to lead your TA practice with more boundaries and more strategic clarity, I’m building tools and frameworks exactly for this. Because high performance shouldn’t require burnout. Let’s rewire the system. 💬 Drop a “❤️” if this hit close.

When I take a true vacation, I delete work email and Slack from my phone. Here’s why: Creative jobs require recharging: Athletes take breaks to recover from injuries, preventing long-term damage. But creatives? We push through depletion, moving from project to project without stopping. This isn’t sustainable - for the individual or the company. Burnt-out creatives don’t produce their best work. I trust my team: When my colleagues or people on my team take vacations, we all step up to support them. The same applies when I’m out. I’m great at my job, but I’m not irreplaceable - and that’s the point. If I couldn’t trust my team to manage without me, I’d be failing as a leader. Emergencies can find me: If there’s a true work crisis, people can call. My phone is always on. But here’s the thing: real emergencies are rare. Most issues can wait, and many solve themselves without intervention. It's why I make it very known what I'm doing on my out of office message and on Slack. I want people to visualize what I'm doing and weigh whether the issue can wait or not. And most times - it can. We’re all working indefinitely: Let’s be real: we don’t have an expiration date on our careers. If you’re not decompressing now, when will you? There’s no mythical future where everything aligns perfectly for rest. Taking a real break now isn’t indulgent; it’s necessary. Leaders set the tone: If I don’t take true vacations, my team won’t either. And the cycle of overwork continues. I refuse to perpetuate a culture that shames people for taking the time they’ve earned. Boundaries aren’t just personal - they’re an example. I used to think working on vacation made me better at my job. I was wrong. I used to believe everything might fall apart if I stepped away. I was wrong there, too. Here’s your sign from the universe, especially ahead of this holiday week: Take your time off - but really take it. And if you don’t have impulse control, deleting your work email and Slack from your phone might be the way to do it. If you’re letting work dominate your vacation, you might as well be sitting in your office instead of holding a Skinny Spicy Mezcal Margarita at the beach. And with that…I am off to Mexico to hold a Skinny Spicy Mezcal Margarita on the beach.

A few years ago, I told a senior tech leader I’d be taking a vacation soon. She didn’t say “enjoy it” or “safe travels.” She said: “Delete email from your phone. Don’t take your laptop.” It sounded so extreme to me! I told her I didn’t mind checking emails for a few minutes each day. She told me that wasn’t the point. If I didn’t disconnect, my body and brain wouldn’t fully rest. She was right. I took her advice, and I still follow it now for longer trips. Last month, I went on a week-long vacation to a beach destination. I deleted my work account from my phone and turned off notifications in Slack and other work-related apps. No “just checking in” while I was away. I got a pic of the view from a sunset cruise and left my phone in my room other times so I wouldn’t worry about dropping it in the ocean. 🌅 Too often, IT and software managers don’t feel like they can take that kind of break. They spend days preparing everything for their absence, then return to a pileup of messages, decisions, and context they’ve missed. Instead of coming back refreshed, they come back bracing for impact. For them, returning to work can be harder than stepping away. Tech leaders can change that and make it work operationally. They can’t personally clear managers' inboxes or block calendars. But they can make it clear that catching up is part of the process. Tell your IT and software managers to give themselves space on reentry, to line up quick debriefs, and to skip nonessential meetings that first day back. When you take the pressure off both sides of the vacation—before and after—it stops being a disruption and starts being a healthy reset.

Leaders — take a break! That advice is really for everyone. However, we know that if leaders don’t model the behavior of taking time off and unplugging, their team members are less likely to care for themselves. More and more, I see team members joining meetings even though they have booked a day off or are on vacation. Their rationale is that it’s easier for them to attend a call here or there to stay informed than to come back and play catch-up. I can’t tell you how much that makes my head spin. Listen, I have been there. I have taken the “day off-ish” where it feels like you can’t untether from work, but I cannot reinforce enough how critical it is to set those boundaries….for yourself and the people you work with. Working endlessly is a direct path to burnout. Nothing will impact your efficiency and productivity more than draining every drop of your energy and attempting to push forward on fumes. Taking a break and using your PTO is how you remain focused and deliver quality results because you give your mind a chance to rest. My best ideas always come after I disconnect—not when I am running on empty. Not only do you need time away from work to breathe and reboot, but your PTO is also part of your total rewards package. You are legit leaving money on the table when you don’t take those days and many companies cap how much you can roll over into the next year. So, if you want to maximize your compensation package, take the time off! A recent LinkedIn study showed that while 54% of individual contributors check in on vacation, the number jumps to 70% for managers and 77% for senior leaders. Additionally, senior leaders also experience heightened guilt when taking time off. As leaders, every time we send an email or jump on a call when we’re supposed to be off, we send a message to our teams that they should do the same and that work matters more than their well-being. People will only feel comfortable taking time off when the company culture values it and when they see their managers embracing it. No matter where you are in your career or what you do, we all need time to recharge. It’s critical to our mental well-being and overall health, but it’s also how we remain all-star employees. Even elite athletes have days off….so if Simone Biles or Tom Brady can take a day and still be the GOAT, you can, too 😊 But in all seriousness, your time off matters. YOU matter. And if you’re a leader, you are responsible for setting the example. Take a break and inspire others to do the same. #wellbeing #takeabreak #unplug #recharge #youmatter

The pressure to follow established cultural norms within an organisation can be strong, even if those norms are dumb and drain productive time or invade our non-work time. (And as Australia seeks to implement a right to disconnect law, it's important to remember that we all have a choice not to follow dumb cultural norms!) And one of the dumbest norms of all is to take a break from work to refresh one’s mental health and spend time with people that you love, only to dread the last two days knowing that you’ll have a thousand emails in your inbox waiting for you. I used to be the same and then I made a decision that changed everything for me. You can do the same. The last thing I wanted to do when I returned to work was to spend hours and hours reading out of date information or negating the purpose of my holiday and allowing overwhelm to immediately return. So I stopped and used the technology to my advantage. I set up a rule to send every message received during my holiday to trash. I freed up time in my first week back for people to bring me up to date - verbally - and by Tuesday I was usually all caught up. As opposed to trawling through my email day and night looking for the important messages. I ensured that people knew of my approach, so that it wasn’t a surprise that I didn’t have their email. I did this by using the text below in my out of office message. This is a cultural norm that everyone can immediately challenge. Name check someone in the comments below who would benefit from this! Copy and paste 👇 ------------- ‘Thanks so much for your email, however I’m currently on leave until xxxx. If you require assistance, please contact xxxx who is covering for me whilst I’m away. Please note that your email will be deleted. This is not because I don’t view its contents as important, but rather that I can do nothing with it, nor do I wish to return from holiday to a thousand emails, thus affecting my productive time for my first month back. Thanks for understanding (also, you should copy this approach!) [Your Name]’ -------------

A few days ago, I wrote about a boss who loved sending Sunday night emails with the subject line: “Not urgent.” A lot of people responded with some version of: “Just don’t check it.” “He said it wasn’t urgent.” “That’s on you, not him.” That sounds tidy. But it completely ignores how power and culture actually work. Because when your boss sends an email, on a Sunday, it doesn’t matter what the subject line says. It creates pressure. Why? Because in most companies, responsiveness is rewarded. Being the one who replies first gets noticed. Being the one who waits sometimes gets forgotten. So even if you don’t open the email, now you’re stuck in mental limbo: Should I check? What if it’s important? What if someone else replies and I look disengaged? This isn’t about willpower. It’s about awareness. When leaders hit send on the weekend, they’re not just sharing information. They’re setting a tone. Don’t make your team choose between being present at home and looking committed at work. If it can wait, let it wait. Want better Mondays? Stop stealing Sundays.

“Charlie sends too many after-hours emails, and it gives me anxiety.” That was the feedback I received a few years ago during one of our engagement surveys. I’ll admit...it stung at first. I’ve always been passionate about my work and inspired to work when the creative energy arises; which often means sending emails outside of work hours. But, what I thought was harmless to others turned out to unintentionally impact my team’s ability to find work-life balance. That feedback was a wake-up call for me.  So, we made a change. We introduced a policy to eliminate emails after 6pm. This policy lives under our greater “Workplace Flexibility Policy” and these days, it’s becoming known as a “Right to Disconnect” policy. Either way, the guidelines are the same… Employees not expected to check or respond to messages outside of regular work hours…and, if work is done after-hours, team members are encouraged to “Schedule Send” emails to arrive during work hours. Simple but powerful. Our policy has been in place for us for a few years now, and it’s helped set the tone for healthy boundaries and work-life balance. I’m excited to see that there are larger conversations around the “Right to Disconnect,” with some nations and even U.S. states considering legislation to ensure employees can fully unplug. Whether driven by laws or company culture, the message is clear: Boundaries matter. I share this because that one piece of tough feedback ended up being a gift to me and my team. It helped me grow as a leader, helped our company culture shape and formed the DNA of who we are today. Now tell me…have you ever worked somewhere with a “Right to Disconnect” policy? Who agrees that it's time to normalize flexibility like this? 🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️ #worklifebalance #disconnect #flexibility

Sunday is a day of rest, right? If you’re working on Sundays, what message are you really sending to your team? As leaders, our actions set the tone—often louder than our words. When we send emails, Slack messages, or updates on a Sunday, even if we say, “This isn’t urgent” or “No need to reply until Monday,” our teams feel the pressure to match our pace. Intentional or not, it can create a culture where being “always on” becomes the norm—and that can lead to burnout. But let’s be real: leadership often requires carving out time to think, catch up, and stay ahead. Sometimes that happens on a Sunday. So how do we balance that without setting unspoken expectations that could impact team morale and wellbeing? Here are 3 things I’ve done with teams to manage this mindset while also feeling empowered to do what I need to do, when I need to do it. 1. Schedule Emails to Send Later: Draft emails or updates, but schedule them to send during normal working hours. Tools like Gmail and Outlook make this easy—and it signals to your team that you respect their time off. 2. Be Transparent About Your Boundaries: Let your team know why you sometimes work weekends (e.g., personal preference or clearing headspace) and remind them that they are not expected to follow suit. Lead by creating a culture that values productivity over hours worked. 3. Lead Conversations on Workload and Priorities: Ensure your team feels empowered to unplug by checking in on their bandwidth regularly. Modeling respect for boundaries starts with fostering honest dialogue about capacity and workload management. Sunday work might be unavoidable for some of us—but what’s avoidable is creating a culture of silent pressure. Leadership isn’t just about delivering results; it’s about showing your team that their rest matters as much as their contributions. Over the years I’ve done my best to avoid weekend work as much as possible but sometimes it’s inevitable. What are your thoughts on balancing weekend work as a leader?

The Untapped Power of "Off": Why Truly Disconnecting Fuels Our Best Work (and Happiest Families) We live in an ultra-connected world where the lines between "on" and "off" have blurred. Checking emails during dinner, mentally rehashing that presentation while tucking the kids into bed – sound familiar? While the drive to stay on top of things is understandable, I truly believe that our ability to turn off from work is not a sign of weakness, but a source of strength, both professionally and personally. Think of it like this: our brains aren't designed for constant high-performance. Just like any muscle, they need rest and recovery to function optimally. When we neglect this "off" switch, we risk burnout, decreased creativity, and diminished productivity. But the benefits extend far beyond our individual output. The time we dedicate to our families – truly present, undistracted time – is invaluable. These moments of connection, laughter, and experiences are the pillar of strong relationships and provide a sense of belonging and support. Imagine the difference: instead of half-heartedly listening to your child recount their day while scrolling through your inbox, you're fully engaged, making eye contact, and hearing them. Instead of feeling the nagging pull of work during a family outing, you're fully present in the joy of the moment, creating memories that will last a lifetime. This isn't about achieving a "perfect" balance every day. It's about consciously creating boundaries and prioritizing dedicated, work-free time. Here are a few small steps we can all take: 1️⃣ Schedule "off" time: Just like you schedule meetings, block out time in your day specifically for family or personal activities. Treat it as a non-negotiable appointment. 2️⃣ Create physical boundaries: When you're home, designate a workspace and physically leave it when your workday is done. 3️⃣ Communicate your boundaries: Let your colleagues know your general availability outside of work hours. 4️⃣ Practice mindful presence: When you're with family, be fully there. Put away your phone and engage in the moment. Turning off isn't a luxury; it's a necessity for success and a fulfilling life. When we allow ourselves to disconnect and recharge, we return to our work with renewed energy, creativity, and a clearer perspective. And more importantly, we show up for the people who matter most, fostering stronger connections and building a richer, more meaningful life outside of our professional endeavors. Here are a few of my favorite moments from our Easter weekend getaway at our 'happy place' - a Disney Cruise! Fully present, experiencing all of the joyful moments life has to offer. Let's make a conscious effort to embrace the power of "off." Our work, our families, and our well-being will thank us for it. #worklifebalance #familytime #wellbeing #productivity #leadership