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I Thought This Was Supposed to be a Vacation?

Wiping the hair away from my eyes, I stepped back to admire my work, a meager but definitely smoking campfire.

Completely isolated somewhere in the north California redwoods, I inhaled the scent of burning wood and roasting marshmallows. As I took in the endless miles of trees, cloudless sky, chirping birds and … the ringing of a cell phone? I quickly walked over to my phone and frowned as “Work” flashed across the LCD screen. A familiar anxiety quickly escalated my heart rate as I debated whether or not I should answer and frantically tried to remember if I could have possibly forgotten to send that proposal over to City government…

I was on a three-month-planned, boss-approved vacation on the opposite side of the country, what could they possibly want? Specifically, I was on a road trip with one of my best friends from high school. A real camping trip, mind you, complete with sleeping bags, wet naps, the occasional port-a-potty (if we were lucky), hard ground and a 7’ by 5’ tent that I had to share with my 6’4” camping partner.

We drove through three west coast states, and as one can imagine, there wasn’t much in terms of real showers, much less cell phone towers between San Francisco and Portland. Everyone at home figured I would not exactly be cell phone accessible. Even my own mother did not try to contact me, but for whatever reason, my boss had no problem calling me with what I’m sure was going to be a stupid question — one that I would bet my precious lighter I wouldn’t be able to answer. “Conspiracy” quickly flashed through my mind as I pictured my boss calmly sitting at her desk on her lunch break plotting ways to ruin my vacation.

It was difficult enough to get these five days of vacation. Wait, no, that’s not entirely true. My boss happily approved my vacation three months prior, but a full two weeks before my departure, I was suddenly receiving disapproving looks from across the conference table whenever I gently reminded her of my approaching vacation. It turned out that the week I would be away coincided with the week our final report was due to our funder, and we were no where close to ready.

As our late nights in the office increased in the weeks prior to our deadline, it was clear that my boss was not very happy that I would be absent during this hectic time. So unhappy, in fact, that snide remarks like, “Well, not all of us can go on vacation…” were starting to leave me extremely uncomfortable and a little sweaty. The guilt my boss was laying on me actually made me think twice about going on this trip. Was I crazy? Or was my boss being inappropriate?

Well, I may be crazy, but that’s not to say that I had not planned this trip completely around my job. I scrolled through my Outlook calendar to ensure that I would not miss anything from conference calls to funder meetings, but now we are weeks behind on the final report and I’m apparently inconsiderately and thoughtlessly picking up to go on vacation. But my bags were packed and my tickets were purchased, all I needed to do is get on that plane and all would be forgotten, right?

Oh yea, back to my ringing phone…I thought I was on vacation, why was my job still causing me stress? What is a vacation when you are forced to snap out of your temporary paradise and think about whether or not the budget is correct?

I panicked and let the call go to voicemail, I didn’t want what they had to say ruin my vacation. Yet, the sheer mystery of what could lie in that voicemail was causing me more apprehension. To my relief they were only looking for a spreadsheet, so my job (for now) was still intact. Eventually my relief fizzled into aggravated disbelief. They clearly bothered me over something incredibly unimportant. Amazingly, in about 10 minutes, one phone call had thrown me into four different throes of emotions, all over a stupid spreadsheet.

The office called me three more times over my five day vacation (not including weekends), leaving me to wonder … with rapidly evolving technology and ever increasing cell phone service areas, is there no longer a boundary between professional and personal life? But then again, does it really matter how many bars I can get on my cell phone? The real question is what kind of courtesy should a boss bestow her employee when they are “off the clock”?

Last I checked, vacation time was set aside to help you forget, or at least take a break from work. While I am more than happy to oblige a few questions, I must say that nothing can ruin the view of the beautiful Pacific Ocean quite like an incessant electronic ring tone.

When I returned to the office, I half expected things to be in complete disarray and confusion, but it was as if I had never left. I even got a pleasant “Hello, how was your vacation?” from my boss. I wanted to say “While it was nice to go hiking in the Oregon sand dunes, it definitely got boring. So, thank you for the interrupting cell phone calls!” Instead I just nodded my head and smiled, “It was fun.”

I’m pretty confident that I am not the only disgruntled employee on vacation. But I have noticed that work doesn’t call me when I’m home sniffling, sneezing and coughing…

I think on my next vacation, I’m calling out sick….

At only 23 years old, Julie Carandang has suffered through a series of career horror stories that most people do not experience in their entire lives. Luckily, she managed to escape and is currently fighting hunger in NYC, although, ironically, she is suffering from lack of sustenance because of Wall Street’s terrible restaurant options. POISE Magazine has actually put this Ithaca College English B.A. in the 98th percentile of the population who actually use their degree after graduation. Julie has an affinity for brunching with the co-founders of POISE, tripods, and chocolate.