Discussion on:

10 ways your IT job can spoil a vacation (and tricks to keep it from happening)

This seems like an article that was forced in the "10 Things" mode. Essentially, they all boil down to one, "Having to stay connected to work while on or instead of taking vacation."

Here's a thought. Vacation is EARNED. Take it. Otherwise you're working for free and what's the point of that? If your boss has a problem with you taking a real vacation, it's time to get another job.

Having experienced most of the "nastiness" listed above, I got smart and got out of the IT field. One can't be paid enough to be on a 24/7/365 employee basis. Does "slave" or "serf" come to mind, as existed in earlier centuries? Same principle of being owned by someone/something else. Pity.

...and you are "the guy". But I've done it. It's important to disconnect.

You don't leave any untested settings on any of your systems. I goofed up that way once, I changed some settings on our Microsoft Exchange Server. The next day I went on vacation which was a two hour flight away, the next day I got a deluge of calls saying they can't send or receive any email. No laptop, or remote software. I had to talk through to an in-house programmer what to do and had to give step by step instructions by phone on how to turn off the SMTP service. After a few hours, we got it to work.

If you think you're so important you can't ever go on vacation I feel bad for your family. The best part of IT is having all the fun stuff to play with and do your job while on vacation. I'm on vacation working a little to stay on top of emails while the kids are still asleep as I write this. Never forget if you quit, die tomorrow or get canned someone will get your job done and your old job will go on. Take some time off and you'll be a better person in the end. If you're a boss your employees will respect you more too. Their talking behind your back about how you're a looser and never do anything. And they worry whether they should take time off or not. Delegate and organize your job better. That's what a good manager does...

I used to get called when I was away, but if I left them with all the solutions for when I was away then they would not need me, they have most solutions for things like system outages, the ones they don't have are for fixes that affect system speed. The company decided I do not need a company phone, excellent - when I am away I do not accept their calls, my phone and my time. I do not log on from home, my broadband my costs, they do not pay my broadband charges. My mobile laptop data is also my own cost, no way am I paying that for them. So look for a company that wants to economise and take advantage of their tight budgeting!

It will come the turn of the others to have a good holiday, so work as a team.

Mobile devices, most notably cellphones and laptops, are the means to get you to do work, when you are not at work, and not pay you for it.

"If you have a problem due to insufficient staff, contact HR ... or payroll about my wages: Indispensible people get paid 7-figure salaries."

At one company I worked for, people would seek out vacation airfares with the highest cancellation fees possible. These deterred the bosses from tampering with the vacation plans.

... as a means of getting the office used to you not being there all the time. This is a good way of building up the two-way trust that is needed - the suggestions above are good.

It is much harder when you work for yourself, and especially if you provide support to others.

What I have is a "what you need to know if I fall under a bus" document, that I keep up to date. This contains a lot of the information that a competent person needs to know if anything happens to me or in my absence.

I have recently been experimenting with using a OneNote notebook, which can be shared, as a means of collecting information together to share with co-workers in my absence especially as it can be shared via Skydrive on the web. It is also quite a good means of logging what has been done in one's absence.

Smartphones have helped as I can deal with email to avoid a large backlog. I do this in odd minutes e.g. standing in line. I have also got more ruthless and delete a lot more emails that I know that in reality I won't be doing anything with; I also have a folder called "forget" for those I don't want to delete, but don't plan to do anything with. This way, I can also enjoy my holiday more knowing that I am not coming back to an overflowing inbox, but without it eating into quality holiday time.

My wife and I had just had our first child. I submitted in writing for a weekend off a full 3 months in advance for my daughter's Christening. The manager didn't approve it until the week before. (Like I was going to not go to my daughter's christening if she said "No" at the last minute?) Good thing it was a Union job, or it could have gotten ugly. I loved that manager, but she was always pulling boneheaded stuff like that.