Vacation and workplace flexibility and honesty

Last week I went on vacation with my family.  And not just immediate family…each year my mom and aunt rent houses near the beach so all the kids and grandkids can be in one place at one time.  It is a wonderful tradition for all of us.

Before I left I posted my out of office message.  As I was doing so, I decided some refreshing honesty was called for.  I have always done the usual “out of office” message. “I will be out from blah to blah please contact soandso if you need help.” But now I don’t work in any sort of an office (I am a digital nomad), this website/blog/business is mostly me and there really is no one to contact (yet) and most importantly I cannot shut work off fully for a week (and to be honest I don’t want to.)  Here is the message I wrote:

I will be on vacation the week of 8/10.  I will be checking email just not at my usual responsive pace. If I am missing a deadline of some sort…do please call and remind me…  Otherwise…I’ll get back to you when my vacation needs a “work break.”

That is the most honest I have ever been.   Yes, I was checking email on my phone, yes I do miss deadlines occasionally after all I am human, and yes being on vacation for me requires a work break.  One of the things that keeps me “balanced” is that work and life are not seperate.  On the same day I will:

Take little one  to school
Head home and work for a few hours
Go to see my pilates instructor – which includes a 3-mile round trip walk
Stop at a store or two for errands
Head to the playground to play with little one and check in with our nanny
Go home and work more
Cook dinner
Play with little one
Put little one to bed
Work more as needed
Watch TV or hang out on Twitter and Facebook
Sleep

And that is just my Monday schedule…Tuesday through Sunday works pretty much the same with different reasons for me to be “out of the office.”

So I figured I would definitely write this post while on vacation.  It would give me the work break I’m used to and the alone time I crave when in a group setting.  But it didn’t happen.  Yes, there was limited connectivity so I couldn’t write directly on my blog and I couldn’t check out the links I wanted to link to.  But I have word…I easily could have written it there and there aren’t many links for this one.  Yes, I was childcare-less but I was surrounded by family who surely would have given me a break for an hour or so, and my husband was around being Daddy part of the week.

The truth is I was enjoying downtime and alone time with the little one.  I did work…I took a conference call, I emailed about a potential upcoming radio interview, I did some follow ups…but truly it was a very light week.  I didn’t expect that and I can see how traffic on the site dipped a bit because of it…but that’s okay…because I choose to flex…at work, on vacation, in life.