I went on a five-day vacation with my family, and not once did I check my email or Webex – I am living proof that it can be done! And I think it’s crucial for us all to take this step, now more than ever.
Think about it; when you take Paid Time Off (PTO), how often do you take a few minutes here and there to “check-in” on work. Especially being in a role of Sales and Account Management where our ability to reply quickly feels like one of our superpowers. If we can just finish that last email or get out that final quote, then we can take a break…
A few weeks before our vacation to Disney World (yes, we took two toddlers to Disney World) I received an email from a colleague apologizing for her late reply as she was on PTO. I had already received her automatic reply the prior week and figured, “No problem, she’ll get back to me next week once she’s caught up.”
What struck me was that she felt the need to apologize for being on PTO – as well as my own habit of apologizing to customers and partners for the same thing. During this past year, it’s often felt like taking PTO may seem pointless. With most travel suspended, there was no destination where you could disconnect for a few days and recharge. The thought of a staycation could be met with disregard or even guilt because, “Why would I take time off, when my laptop is right there for me to work?”
I truly believe this has and is taking a major toll on our mental health. We are all sitting at home – which has now become our office and a classroom for many, and it can be hard to create separation from all of the daily demands. This leaves us in a state of always being “on” which can raise levels of stress and anxiety dramatically!
So, when my family and I took off for Disney for a few days, I made a vow to myself (and ultimately to my wife and kids) that I wasn’t going to spend even a minute scrolling through email. This allowed me to TRULY disconnect from work for five straight days!
After returning from our trip, I may have been exhausted from chasing a sugar-filled, nap-deprived 4-year-old and 22-month-old around the ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’ – but as I saddled up to my desk, I felt recharged and was 100% ready to get to work. And guess what – my customers, partners and colleagues…they all survived without me for a few days!
I’m thankful that Cisco provides ample time for us to take off and truly encourages their employees to use that time to reconnect to oneself and family. They even sprinkle in extra days not attached to our PTO called “A Day for Me” for employees to collectively take a break. I’m also thankful that my direct manager is fully supportive of me taking time away as needed!
I wanted to share this in an effort to encourage and invite others to do the same. When you take time off, truly take that time off. It’s called Paid Time Off – not Paid Time On. It is important to prioritize your mental health and your relationships with friends and family – just as you prioritize sales goals, project deadlines, and emails with customers.
If you have PTO upcoming, do yourself a favor and commit to NOT working during that time. For some it’s as easy as making the commitment and sticking to it. For others, you might need to hide your Outlook, Webex, MBR, and other apps in a folder on your phone or remove them entirely.
If you do not have any upcoming PTO scheduled and you haven’t taken any personal time recently – do it now! Schedule it today. If you’re in a place where you can do some travel (safely), get yourself out of town. If you can’t, do things at home that would otherwise take a backseat to work – go for long family walks, sleep in, try to work out every day, or cook an elaborate meal!
If you can truly disconnect, you will find that you’ll return to work with a new energy and a clear mind, ready to take on the day!
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Great blog Tommy! I’m going to use this as inspiration during my PTO next week at the beach!
Thanks for your kind words! My only advice is just like anything, proper planning is the key. I made sure to set a solid backfill for urgent matters and communicated my time off and backfill solution with all the appropriate stakeholders in my business so everyone was on the same page. PLUS I resisted the temptation to put my cell number in my OOO message 😉
Truly appreciate your blog.
If an employee can benefit, the company will benefit, finally.
Totally agree, having quality time with our beloved ones, to relax and unplug from work is key to reload and continue being effective at work.
Great advice and a much needed reminder as I prepare for the stretch of “Summer PTO”. Thanks Tommy!
William, thanks for message! Hoping you can successfully disconnect wherever you’re heading this summer!
This is such a great blog article! And so timely… Self-care is so important when it comes to bringing your best self to work!
Thank you Prajakta!
So true and it is really sad that a lot of us are still in the bad habit of just quickly checking emails or responding to urgent tasks… I hope you have inspired many to change their behavior.
Thanks Miglena! Especially during COVID when we’re all available all the time!
Critical message. What is good for employees really is good for the company and our customers. Said with zero sarcasm: Thanks for being brave enough to tell people you took vacation and it was good. Appreciate it brother!
I just came back from PTO and for five days I was off from Webex, Outlook and I had a good time off RVing with my family and thanks to Cisco and to my direct manager and my teammates who were very supportive and not to disturb me.
Nagaraj – I’m so happy to hear that! Refreshing that Cisco has created a culture with THIS is normal 🙂
Nice blog, nice read.
Thank you for sharing!
Thank you Kanishka!
So true! We all do it! The last couple days off I had, I totally unplugged… but it was difficult. I believe that most of us that work at Cisco really truly care about our work, our coworkers, customers, and doing our best. That is what makes it especially challenging to completely “unplug” for many of us. There is something to be said for recharging your batteries so that you come back refreshed and that is what I have been telling myself every time I am “tempted” to login. Great article! Thank you for the much needed reminder that it’s “Okay” to go on PTO. 😉
Hi Sue, thank you for your message! Glad to hear you’re finding time to disconnect too! What I’ve told myself is that even if I end up checking in once or twice because of an emergency.. taking 95%+ of my time off is better than 50% 🙂
I constantly remind myself what a coworker told me his kids used to say to him. “Dad, it’s not Pretend time off, it’s Paid time off!” HA HA, I chuckle, but the kiddos definitely had a point there. Cheers!
Fantastic article, thanks for posting! I recently took a really great block of time off and came back recharged and centered. The trick for me was to move the Outlook application on my phone to somewhere I wouldn’t see it easily. I broke the pattern of checking email every time I picked up my phone. Combined with turning off notifications and logging Webex out, it was a great way to disconnect and trust my team had it handled (which of course they did!)
This is great! You’re exactly right that sometimes we need to protect ourselves from ourselves 🙂 Moving the app, turning off notifications, I’ve done the same things to help. thank you for sharing!
Hi Tommy…YES YES YES! This has been a 20+ year rant for me. From that time (20 years ago) when I was called by my manager (different company) while my husband and I were in Hawaii celebrating a gorgeous holiday…long story short, I have carried that lesson forward everywhere I have gone, and on every team I have led. #unplug (for you, and for us) 😉
Mark, thanks for sharing your story as well! We’re all better for it when you tune into the rhythms of your life. We are “ON” so often when we’re working that we absolutely need some time to be completely “OFF” from work. Proud to work for a company like Cisco that encourages this from Chuck and Fran all the way through each individual manager 🙂
Thank you for sharing, it resonated a lot with me. This year for the first time in many many years I didn’t check anything work related during my holidays and it had a very positive impact! Can’t wait for my next PTO to do the same!
Hi Stefina and thanks for sharing your story! Good for you for taking the time to truly disconnect! Hopefully you have some upcoming PTO this summer 🙂
Thanks Tommy! your blog just came in when I am starting to prepare myself for that “long delayed” family vacation next week ! … yes I know it sounds even suicidal to think to take time off during the last week of the Fiscal Year!, I work in Operations so no external customer contact, but besides that my team TRULY has everything under control that I can safely say … “Alfonso, get out of the way… they’ve got this!….” … so …. PTO here we go!
Alfonso thanks for sharing! After the last 18 months I think we all deserver to give ourselves some time off! I hope you enjoy your PTO next week!
It’s not only good for us, it’s good for Cisco. Here’s what I mean:
Staff Development: if you’re a manager taking PTO, ideally for more than a week, your staff gets exposed to new things because you’re not there. Effectively, they’re now in the deep end of the pool, but in a safe space. They can learn and try new things that they might not do otherwise because they defer to you. Great for them– and great for you, because you’ve now grown them and you can grow yourself.
Empowerment: Earlier in my career, I went through a period where suddenly I could only work in the office 40 hours/week (before Webex!). My habit before was control, constant connection, and be on top of the details. When that event happened, I could no longer operate in that mode. My staff had to pick up when I couldn’t be there. Guess what– they liked it better. I liked it better. We got more done. Who knew? Taking PTO works the same way.
New ideas: the way your staff might handle things while you are gone will be, almost by definition, different than the way you would handle it. Some of their ways may be better, so by taking PTO, you create a way to incubate new ways of doing things and test out new concepts. Additionally, it’s a fact– new environments create new ideas (ever wonder why your best ideas come to you in the shower?) so you being out and about jerks your brain out of those well-worn ruts in your thinking. PTO creates innovation.
Happy wife [spouse/partner], happy life: sending your family the message through action that they’re important makes for a more harmonious family life. A great family life means a more safe, secure, and comforting work life because you know your family has your back. When you need to spend time on work, they’re there for you. And your work life isn’t distracted by self-created family crises due to lack of attention.
Being well rounded with a bunch of interests is great for everyone. PTO helps that as well.
So, PTO: good for your life, and also really good for business. Who knew?
Jack, I love how you’ve framed this and you are spot on with your points. In a world where we’re all so connected we sometimes forget that its OK to disconnect. By the way I noticed in the directory you’re involved in our supply chain, so a major congratulations on back to back years of success according to Gartner 😉
Great article! I am sure it will encourage many more to do the same and prioritize self care. PTO helps mental health and personal relationship once in few months, if we practice timezone respect, we can have much needed unplugging on day to day basis and can be truly ‘not always on’. Timezone respect not messaging & expecting response when it is not their preferred working hours, it means building your teams and processes and rituals keeping every person’s preferred working hours/timezone.
Vijay – great point about time zone respect! Each person should feel comfortable to set the proper boundaries with their colleagues about when they can expect responses and when they officially “turn off” for the day. Thanks for sharing this thought!
You are so right!! I can’t wait for my next PTO in Sept!
Thanks John, I hope you enjoy!
That’s a very nice read and a true motivation to try out a “downtime” during my upcoming PTO – even though it is always too tempting to check emails, but I am completely aware of the fact that this spoils my relaxation mode. Will try to be hard to myself:-)!
Words of wisdom and it looks like the fam was having a blast! Glad you could get away with them for a bit amigo.