Avoidance - when you don't want the lab to follow you home

[Editor]

Is it bad form to avoid work email while on a two-week Christmas break? I'm pretty sure my boss has probably sent me a note requesting some stuff about a paper we're writing together, but if I read the email I'll feel obliged to work on the paper. And I just don't want to! As it is, I can feign ignorance.

Am I evil?

Happy Christmas and New Year to all, BTW.

[The Prof]

Glad to see I'm not the only person online on Boxing Day! Happy Christmas to you, and all LabLiterati.

I have long since stopped pestering my people over the festive period. You might get something back, but you run the risk of any output being strongly laced with alcohol, caffeine and chocolate excess.

[Mad Dan Eccles]

I say a vacation is a vacation. Which is why I am *very* glad that my work email account is not the same as my personal one (and in fact is quite difficult to get at from home); and I haven't looked at it in over a week. It might have all gone shit-shaped at work, and you know what? I don't care.

[hedge]

Don't open the work email! What's the point? You're on hols, you need to walk the walk.

[challenge]

Jenny; I opened my private email while on vacation last week and had a facebook message from a work collegue asking me a work related question. Then I ended up opening my work email, since I don't like writing work emails through facebook (that's another story) and saw another email dated earlier than the facebook message. Clearly VERY important stuff so I answered the questions, a bit half assed maybe but hey- it was my first real vacation for a long time and I really enjoyed not thinking about work and stressing about manuscript and other stuff - and then got a reply a day later. What the reply said "well, thanks for your response. I have now realised that I don't need your answer at all since I am going to do something completely different. sorry for bothering".

yes. guess who felt like a nice idiot. (unfortenately not the other person would be my guess).

i hope you neglected to check the work email for the duration of the holidays. if something REALLY important comes up, I am sure they will call or knock on you door......or send smoke signals.

[challenge]

oh, and HAPPY NEW YEARS!

May 2010 be prosperous for all of us in term of happy results, publications, work, love and all the other happy things we need in our lives!