You are in the bedroom packing for vacation and your spouse turns to you and says, “Are you going to be doing work while on vacation?” How you respond to that question is the subject of this column.
The European standard is to take a month off. August in France and Germany can be a no-man's land in the workplace with everyone gone on vacation. Then there is the American reality. There are fewer days of paid vacation being taken by American workers. This helps with productivity numbers for the company or the government but puts added strain on workers.
The other reality is that as the director you are expected to be there when disaster strikes. If you are on vacation and a disaster occurs – get home as fast as you can. When there is a disaster in progress, perhaps even"winding down" do not leave town for a planned vacation. The family may not like it but tending the home fires at the Emergency Operations Center will keep you employed. Leaving town gives the wrong message to your boss, elected officials, the media and the public.
* Or, do you go beyond that to say monitor email traffic so that you stay abreast of projects and their progression so that when back to work you don't have such a steep mountain of email to read and respond to.