Should you work on your holidays?

As a head hunter, I get asked this question all the time.

In the fast paced global market we work in, the demands from employers has never been more immense. We all owe it to ourselves and importantly our families to spend time with them unimpeded by business dealings. Clients should respect that you need some downtime to recharge the batteries and importantly your employer allows you the time to be offline.

It sounds easy right! When you run your own company and or you are about to close a deal whilst sitting at a beach resort (as I was recently in Thailand), maintaining contact with the office makes great practical and commercial sense. Furthermore, none of us like returning to the office after a 2 week holiday to address 100 emails!

But is it better for us to switch off completely to re-charge the batteries. Yes says my wife! What do you say? Switch off entirely or maintain contact?