Week Notes Vol 11

Post vacation blues is a thing. Usually it doesn’t hit me as hard since I’m always plotting the next adventure but this time I came back from Estonia with no specific plans or reservations made. Thankfully I was off to California for some on-site meetings so I didn’t really have time to dwell on it too long. However I have learned a few things that help to cope with the feelings after:

• plan your next trip while on vacation
• do not check your work email/calendar/slack until you get back and truly need to start work
• be prepared to be overwhelmed by unread emails. On average it takes me about one day per week off to catch up. I don’t expect to get much other work done while this is happening.
• pace yourself - working 14 hour days the first week after vacation will burn anyone out
• plan time for fun activities - for me it is hikes, going climbing, catching up with friends
• ease into screen time if you’ve been offline most of your vacation
• clear your home before you leave for a trip to avoid the feeling of dream when you return
• set a picture from the trip as yur desktop wallpaper on your computer/phone

Reading

• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Worthwhile to read:

• https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/values/ - if only every company published their values like this!
• https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/leadership/#management-group - more specific guidelines in addition to previous link on managing and membership
• https://mfbt.ca/how-i-talk-to-leaders-about-firing-people-8149dfcb035b

Written by Katrin Valdre who has a permanent address in Portland, OR but does not believe in one physical location. You should follow her on Twitter