[decebalus1]

On a tangent, I'm an American and I disappear for a month when I take vacation. It probably has something to do with the fact that I was born in Europe or with getting tired of half-assing vacations and getting burned out. I'd like for 'black hole' vacations to be normalized in the American workplace. I'm doing my part!

[conductr]

I'm an American and do this too. Also, I don't take work home. I leave my laptop at work. It's a signal I do on purpose and I regularly talk about my life balance priorities. I don't mind working long hours during projects or busy times but I like to keep it in the office. So long as it's infrequent, couple times a year, something may totally blow up and I'll just go into the office on the weekend. If I'm out of town or not physically able to make it, well that means I can't physically pull out my laptop and dive into my work regardless of my location. I consider that a "not my problem" situation. I've found, if you give in to the instant responsiveness and availability, it becomes expectation. I'm mid-career and have done that, but at this point I go into jobs setting my terms and don't mind telling a C level or BOD member they can wait until I get back in the office. I don't even do that usually because I just don't respond outside of regular hours. It's not for everyone, and I may someday alter this, but I find it suites me at the moment. I have a young child and I'm not jumping on calls/emails/texting during our already limited time together. It works just fine but if I were to do this at a junior level it would have been career suicide. My experience is what has given me the leverage to demand my work style.