By Jessica M. Sanchez, HR Business Partner, People & Culture

Nearly 70% of people admit to checking work emails while on vacation, according to a study by LinkedIn “Summer Vacation data.” Can you guess the number one reason being cited as to why people don’t disconnect from work while on vacation? They don’t want to fall behind.

Most agree career success is linked to work/life balance, so why do most of us struggle to completely go off the grid when on vacation? According to the same LinkedIn study, we suffer from what has been dubbed “vacation request FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)”. A whopping, 15% of the workforce studied did not take time off because they’re scared of things coming up at work.

Instead of feeling FOMO, find the joy in missing out – JOMO – and be present on vacation. Challenge yourself to do the things you love to do without checking your email or even social media. Read, play golf, learn a new hobby – there is so much out there that can make you better at your job. Rather than worrying about what is going on at work, make the most of out your time out of the office, so that you can come back energized, inspired and at the top of your game. You worked hard for this time; it would be a shame to not take full advantage.

If you can relate to the feeling of vacation request FOMO, try to digitally detox and unplug while on vacation. Wondering how? Here are just a few tips for you:

Perfect the Out of Office Email
An “out of office” (OOO) email reply is key when it comes to disconnecting from work. Before you head out, discuss a plan with your team or supervisor and align on a point of contact so you know someone is available, should anything urgent come up. Short and sweet is the name of the game for OOO messages – include the dates you’ll be out, who they should reach out to if there’s an emergency, and relevant contact information.

Let Your Team Disconnect
About 67% of people say they would contact a colleague about work-related matters while the colleague is on vacation. Before hitting send, we should ask ourselves, can this be handled by the back-up, can this wait until they return, will the business/client/ problem still be here tomorrow? We all want our coworkers to give us the same courtesy when we’re away, so work with your colleagues to ensure you’re all able to disconnect during time off so everyone can come back refreshed.

Enjoy Your Vacation
No, seriously. Our PTO policy is “use it or lose it” – no exceptions! We encourage and sincerely want everyone to use and enjoy that well deserved time off. Afterall, a refreshed mind is a balanced mind.

With summer now upon us, we would like to remind our talents to take a moment to plan and schedule PTO; to help with your planning, here are the remaining 2019 MCI USA Holidays:

  • 4th of July, July 4
  • Labor Day, Monday, September 3
  • Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 21
  • Day after Thanksgiving, Friday, November 22
  • Christmas Eve, Tuesday, December 24
  • Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25
  • Thursday, December 26
  • Friday, December 27
  • Monday, December 30
  • New Year’s Eve, Tuesday, December 31
  • New Year’s Day, Wednesday January 1, 2020

If you have any questions about PTO usage, feel free to contact your People and Culture Team:
Jessica Bonorden, based in McLean at Jessica.bonorden@mci-group.com
Jessica Sanchez, based in Dallas at Jessica.sanchez@mci-group.com
Rebecca Watts, based in McLean at Rebecca.Watts@mci-group.com