Melanie Fish, second from left, shares how working for a travel company helped her prioritize time off.Remote work makes it easier than ever to take a working vacation — you can travel to a new location, log in during the day and essentially get away without having to use your PTO days. But a lot of people are coming back from these "breaks" even more burned out than when they left.
Melanie Fish, head of global PR for Expedia Group Brands, knows this from experience. During the pandemic, she tried to take a working vacation from a rental house in the woods, "and it was actually stressful for me to hear my family getting ready for a hike while I was trying to reply to an email," she says. "It taught me that not every trend is a good one."
Expedia Group employees get 15 to 25 paid days off and up to $1,500 in travel and wellness reimbursements per year. They also get access to special hotel and travel discounts through their platforms. So go ahead and block that calendar for a couple hours. Keep that out of office message on. Keep Slack to inactive. Give yourself a chance to enter at a reasonable pace.I have had amazing bosses that I am super clear with — "I am taking this time off, I will not be checking email, here's who to contact, or please text me if you truly need me" — and they've respected that.