I was thinking how special home leave is, and then a Foreign Service friend emailed me the same thought, so I thought I'd share: during home leave, we are utterly unplugged from work. 100%. No ifs, ands or buts. I suppose in an emergency, my "losing" post and my "gaining" post both have my personal email - but since my successor has already arrived in Manila, and my predecessor is still in DC, there is no need.
Not to mention, I have absolutely zero access to work email and using personal email for work stuff is highly frowned upon (no surprises there, right?). My account has been in limbo since April 30. No Blackberry. No valid log on. NOTHING.
How many working professionals these days can take an enforced communication-free vacation? My guess is very few. Which makes me thankful that Congress mandates home leave.*
Of course it comes with its own quandaries: where to stay? how to fill all that time, especially when your kids move so much they don't know anyone in the USA? How much to spend on what? How to divvy time between different family visits that have been deferred the last two or three years we've been gone? The list goes on, with no right answer to any question - and even what worked this time will be different in a few years when our family situation is different.
Sometime this week, though, bliss will end. I am taking an assignment in DC and becoming a bureaucrat again. I will be expected to regularly check my Blackberry at all times, I suspect. Boundaries between personal and work will fuzz over. And I will have to wait for the break before my next overseas assignment before I can unplug again. *sigh*
(*Home leave is technically mandated only for back-to-back overseas assignments, to reacquaint FS officers with the USA. Since I'm going to a US-based assignment, it is optional. Due to staffing situations at my losing and gaining post, I was able to take such a long vacation by adding on some annual leave to home leave.)
Not to mention, I have absolutely zero access to work email and using personal email for work stuff is highly frowned upon (no surprises there, right?). My account has been in limbo since April 30. No Blackberry. No valid log on. NOTHING.
How many working professionals these days can take an enforced communication-free vacation? My guess is very few. Which makes me thankful that Congress mandates home leave.*
Of course it comes with its own quandaries: where to stay? how to fill all that time, especially when your kids move so much they don't know anyone in the USA? How much to spend on what? How to divvy time between different family visits that have been deferred the last two or three years we've been gone? The list goes on, with no right answer to any question - and even what worked this time will be different in a few years when our family situation is different.
Sometime this week, though, bliss will end. I am taking an assignment in DC and becoming a bureaucrat again. I will be expected to regularly check my Blackberry at all times, I suspect. Boundaries between personal and work will fuzz over. And I will have to wait for the break before my next overseas assignment before I can unplug again. *sigh*
(*Home leave is technically mandated only for back-to-back overseas assignments, to reacquaint FS officers with the USA. Since I'm going to a US-based assignment, it is optional. Due to staffing situations at my losing and gaining post, I was able to take such a long vacation by adding on some annual leave to home leave.)
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