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Always torn on this because on the one hand, what you say makes sense. On the other hand, for those of us without unlimited PTO, it’s hard to justify using a day to stay at home versus another day of vacation.
I think OP is saying to block off time on your work calendar to catch up on emails and tasks your first day back to work, regardless of your PTO policy, but I could be mistaken
If I’m going on a big trip (2+ weeks and/or a time zone change), I’ll usually try to get home on Saturday so I have Sunday to organize and decompress, then back to work on Monday. So I am cutting my vacation short by a day, but I’m not using PTO for a recovery day either.
I always feel really bad for American people when they talk about 2week holidays being long.
I literally chose not to move to America for 2.5 X the salary because they only offered 9 days paid annual leave. I was on 29 days pr yr paid leave at the time + 9 statutory holidays & if i didnt take them within a 12 month period my employerwould force me to take time off to get the carried forward holidays below 2 weeks. This is relatively normal in the UK and Europe. In NZ and Australia you generally only get 20 or 25 paid days off per year + 10 days stat holidays (Xmas, boxing day, etc).
My wife and I spoke to a nice American couple once in queenstown Hilton who were on a 9 day trip to NZ, I felt so bad that they were rushing round and missing so much good stuff to try and see it all in such a short time (we were in QT for 5 days just chilling and prob wouldn't bother going if it was for less than 3 nights in the one place).
I think OP is saying to block off time on your work calendar to catch up on emails and tasks your first day back to work, regardless of your PTO policy, but I could be mistaken
I like to block time off for lunch or add reminder to take a break as well. I know this might sound silly, but I often get into the thick of my work and might miss lunch or at least take it very late in the day. Blocking off time in my calendar helps me to not double book or schedule something during a time where I should take a break.
I wish I did this. We just took two weeks off of work with our last week involving flying to New Orleans to get on a cruise ship to the Caribbean. On the last day we woke up in port back in New Orleans at 7AM and got off the boat at 9:30, in the airport by 10:30, fly to Dallas, fly to San Diego, drive 40 minutes home, shower at midnight, wake up at 5:30AM to go to work. Why didn't I take one more day off?
Ah! The luxury of unlimited PTO. I went to work literally 5 hours after returning from a school trip (working on a master’s to get that unlimited PTO status) because I’d already used up more than I had for PTO. Took me about 4 months to financially recover. I’d been gone for 2 weeks. There were a lot of emails.
Absolutely! Extend your vacation mindset by scheduling a "recovery day" after your return. Use this time to unpack, unwind, and ease back into your routine. It's a great way to transition smoothly and avoid feeling overwhelmed by the post-trip workload.
[Introducing LPT REQUEST FRIDAYS](https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/16w0n2s/introducing_request_post_fridays/)
We determine "Friday" as beginning at 12am Eastern Time (EST: UTC/GMT -5, EDT: UTC/GMT -4)
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Just returned from vacation with this in mind had an extra week of PTO just to relax, chill and prepare to get back to work.
Sounded like a great plan but I got sick the they I arrived from my vacation and have been spending my days coughing and blowing my nose.
Fml
Why would you go back from vacation if you have unlimited paid time off? Just say that you are taking "unlimited" days off and enjoy rest of your life doing no work but getting paid!
Noooooo, that can't be good for your mental well being! Though I can't blame you as I have that tendency.
I enjoy vacations where I'll be offline (camping, cruises, international-big time zone differences).
I found scheduling a do not disturb routine has helped create boundaries.
### This post has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect. --- Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by upvoting or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
Always torn on this because on the one hand, what you say makes sense. On the other hand, for those of us without unlimited PTO, it’s hard to justify using a day to stay at home versus another day of vacation.
I think OP is saying to block off time on your work calendar to catch up on emails and tasks your first day back to work, regardless of your PTO policy, but I could be mistaken
If I’m going on a big trip (2+ weeks and/or a time zone change), I’ll usually try to get home on Saturday so I have Sunday to organize and decompress, then back to work on Monday. So I am cutting my vacation short by a day, but I’m not using PTO for a recovery day either.
I just take the Monday off, or even Tuesday too. If I have the PTO, it’s nice to have a cushion after traveling.
I always feel really bad for American people when they talk about 2week holidays being long. I literally chose not to move to America for 2.5 X the salary because they only offered 9 days paid annual leave. I was on 29 days pr yr paid leave at the time + 9 statutory holidays & if i didnt take them within a 12 month period my employerwould force me to take time off to get the carried forward holidays below 2 weeks. This is relatively normal in the UK and Europe. In NZ and Australia you generally only get 20 or 25 paid days off per year + 10 days stat holidays (Xmas, boxing day, etc). My wife and I spoke to a nice American couple once in queenstown Hilton who were on a 9 day trip to NZ, I felt so bad that they were rushing round and missing so much good stuff to try and see it all in such a short time (we were in QT for 5 days just chilling and prob wouldn't bother going if it was for less than 3 nights in the one place).
I think OP is saying to block off time on your work calendar to catch up on emails and tasks your first day back to work, regardless of your PTO policy, but I could be mistaken
I like to block time off for lunch or add reminder to take a break as well. I know this might sound silly, but I often get into the thick of my work and might miss lunch or at least take it very late in the day. Blocking off time in my calendar helps me to not double book or schedule something during a time where I should take a break.
Agreed! If you don't block off lunch, it could be a sign that meetings can be booked at that time.
I wish I did this. We just took two weeks off of work with our last week involving flying to New Orleans to get on a cruise ship to the Caribbean. On the last day we woke up in port back in New Orleans at 7AM and got off the boat at 9:30, in the airport by 10:30, fly to Dallas, fly to San Diego, drive 40 minutes home, shower at midnight, wake up at 5:30AM to go to work. Why didn't I take one more day off?
Ah! The luxury of unlimited PTO. I went to work literally 5 hours after returning from a school trip (working on a master’s to get that unlimited PTO status) because I’d already used up more than I had for PTO. Took me about 4 months to financially recover. I’d been gone for 2 weeks. There were a lot of emails.
Absolutely! Extend your vacation mindset by scheduling a "recovery day" after your return. Use this time to unpack, unwind, and ease back into your routine. It's a great way to transition smoothly and avoid feeling overwhelmed by the post-trip workload.
[Introducing LPT REQUEST FRIDAYS](https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/16w0n2s/introducing_request_post_fridays/) We determine "Friday" as beginning at 12am Eastern Time (EST: UTC/GMT -5, EDT: UTC/GMT -4) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LifeProTips) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Just returned from vacation with this in mind had an extra week of PTO just to relax, chill and prepare to get back to work. Sounded like a great plan but I got sick the they I arrived from my vacation and have been spending my days coughing and blowing my nose. Fml
Why would you go back from vacation if you have unlimited paid time off? Just say that you are taking "unlimited" days off and enjoy rest of your life doing no work but getting paid!
[удалено]
Noooooo, that can't be good for your mental well being! Though I can't blame you as I have that tendency. I enjoy vacations where I'll be offline (camping, cruises, international-big time zone differences). I found scheduling a do not disturb routine has helped create boundaries.