When I go on vacation, I leave very careful instructions about how to get in touch with me, and beg everyone to please call me if there is any sort of problem.
I would much rather spend a few minutes on the phone with the office while on vacation than come back to some hideous snowballing problem that’s been sitting on my desk for a week.
Last year, I was on vacation in Europe. I returned to the hotel to find about ten messages pleading with me to call the office, and to phone a coworker at home if necessary. I called this person at her home, and the big issue was …
“would you be willing to do the marcarena on stage at the company’s end of year talent show?”
Ok, whatever.
I get back to the office, and find out that a problem with our payroll company has resulted in 45 people not receiving paychecks. I could have fixed this with one phone call, if anyone had let me know about it. The same macarena maniac told me she “didn’t want to bother me on vacation.”