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Five Tips for Getting the Vacation You Need

IT departments may be "always on," but IT leaders need to know how to take some time off

By C.G. Lynch

July 17, 2007 — CIO —

It’s summertime and the office probably seems a little more vacant than normal. But IT, that perennial 24/7 environment, doesn’t shut down, so why should you, right? If that’s the way you think, it’s time for a vacation. The health of your mind and body—and the rest of your department—depends on you getting some much-needed rest. Here are five tips to help you get out of your “always-on” rut and find time to decompress.

1) Plan for your departure and pick a time

While it sounds fairly obvious, you can alleviate a good portion of your anxiety by having a good plan that highlights issues that could crop up while you’re away, says Deborah Brown-Volkman, president of Surpass Your Dreams, a career coaching company. She says this planning needs to extend beyond just saying what dates you’ll be gone. “Take a look at your projects, and let your staff know what they need to do,” she says. “It’s so important to be as specific as possible with people.”

In addition, IT leaders say that, despite the 24/7 nature of IT, you can still usually pick a time of year when your business cycles experience a swoon. For Bob Weir, vice president of IS for Northeastern University in Boston, he doesn’t enjoy the posh academic calendar that people might assume. Northeastern, a school that prides itself on its co-op program (where students work at companies related to their major), never really shuts down. Students have unique schedules, and the university accommodates them by having two summer sessions in addition to the two semesters during the school year. Even so, there are fewer students on campus during the summer, and Weir’s team uses the opportunity to refresh the campus infrastructure. When this happens, Weir finds it a perfect time to let his CTO take the wheel as he ducks out for some time at his house on Bungay Lake in North Attleborough, Mass. “To go out and do all that infrastructure work, they don’t need me for that,” he says. “If, during the [traditional] academic year, we’re talking about bringing out a new service and negotiating that with the Dean, that’s something I handle. So the business cycles help me out.”

 

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