I can’t recall if I use the word “can’t” or not because it’s not really an issue for me at the moment.
But I have in the past told an unreasonable boss that I have plans tonight / Saturday / whenever. I fail to mention that it’s plans to do a load of laundry, unload the dishwasher and watch TV as that’s none of their stinking business.
I only do that if I think Boss is being extremely unreasonable, but yeah.
no one expects me to check in on PTO, that is my own issue
have email on my phone, required a longer password on phone and weekly verifications. rest is through apps. get Teams on my phone too.
i like to answer questions if i can easily, or forward to someone to answer. I do deal with clients. Almost never open computer to do work on PTO even if available.
Well now I’m really confused about your access
Occasionally I do travel to places with little to no internet. They are becoming harder to find now.
A cruise used to be somewhere I would be out of touch as the connection fees were extreme and spotty
I say whether I will or won’t be checking email. I scheduled a last minute long weekend earlier this year and my boss was gone so I told my peeps to text if they needed anything. I took my laptop just in case, but never opened it.
When/if I take my real vacation later this year I won’t be checking & I won’t have my laptop.
With my current client I tell them that if a 5 minute phone call or text string will save them 10 minutes or more of guessing or worse, doing the wrong thing, go ahead and text me. They never have.
With a past client I brought my laptop on a trip to my in-laws and logged in for an important meeting and billed the client for the hour plus maybe 15 minutes on either side of the meeting. But it really wasn’t a big deal. I was missing watching spaghetti westerns with my FIL and shopping at the PX with my MIL. I had plenty of time hanging out with them without that hour-plus. If I’d been on a cruise or at the beach or on my most recent road trip… nope, sorry, gonna miss that one.
I do what’s reasonable, based on MY definition of “reasonable”. I like to be a team player but there’s a limit.
My usual line these days when I unplug is “my access to corporate email and Teams will be limited” and I indicate that I’d prefer messages be left by email.
My internet access has been limited due to being on a plane, or cell reception being non-existent in places in Alaska or the Adirondacks, or sitting in an ER with lousy cell coverage… but really, that piece of information isn’t relevant to communicating my unpluggedness.
The last time I remember being without internet/cell for an extended period was in Glacier National Park. I remember checking voicemail on a pay phone. I just googled, and thankfully that’s mostly still the case:
I don’t remember having public wifi at the 2 visitor centers, so perhaps that’s more recent than my last visit there. I do remember you could get a signal in/near West Glacier.
A good while back (2008) I remember being in Yellowstone and there was no cell coverage or wifi. There is coverage in a good bit of Yellowstone now. One memorable part of that trip: we were there for superbowl sunday. Not only was there no internet, there was no tv service at the lodge. A park employee had rigged up a satellite in nearby employee housing and was videotaping it. Every quarter a guy would drive the tape of the superbowl over to the lodge where we could watch it. Since no one could check the score, there were no spoilers. When he came back with the 4th quarter tape, he said “you’re gonna like it”. That was a memorable superbowl in multiple ways.
