Disconnect on Holiday

Wed 10 September 2025

A timely topic, as I'm writing this on the plane back from my latest trip: When you go on holiday, don’t check your work email, disable all notifications, just disconnect completely. Not just for your own mental health - many people have covered that extensively - but also to test the resilience of your work projects.

It’s easy to argue about bus factors, but nothing clarifies the situation better than going off grid for two weeks. Can your colleagues add new features, fix bugs with ease? Or do they start wishing for you to come back, try to contact you after two days? Do things fall over and need fixing, or does everything keep humming along nicely?

Not being able to go away for more than a few days is a sign of failed design.

Tags: work, life