“Are you planning to disconnect?”
Last week I had the pleasure of hosting a few of our members and business partners at the Servus Credit Union luxury suite at an Edmonton Oilers game.
With the Oilers once again eliminated from the National Hockey League playoff race for the 10th consecutive year, the game was not capturing our attention. Instead, several of us were entrenched in conversation on various topics including plans for the upcoming Spring Break. Several of our guests had children around the same age, so we discussed what we would be doing over the next 10 days to keep them occupied. For me, a portion of the Spring Break (which I had also taken off) would be spent alone with my beautiful wife away from the kids in the city of San Francisco. Both of us have been running a million miles a minute and now with the hockey season having come to a close, we have the opportunity for some much needed time away.
You would think that visions of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz would be filling my thoughts, but what has truly occupied my mind since that discussion was a question from one of our business partners.
“Are you planning to disconnect?”
To this point, I hadn’t really thought about it as its become a part of me. If you had seen me at all during the hockey season whether it was at an evening hockey practice or a tournament on the weekend, 10 out of 10 times you would have likely seen me with my work phone. More often than not, you would have also seen me responding to emails.
Like many of you, I have created a world where I have made myself accessible at all times.
Obviously this has to change.
I have taken extended vacation time with my family before, but I can’t say that I have truly felt recharged or refreshed. I would suggest to you that this was likely because of my inability to completely shutoff myself off from my work in the credit union movement.
I must fight my urges to stay connected. I must be willing to accept the fact that it’s okay to spend a portion of my first day back to work responding to emails. I must trust in my teams that the branches will continue to function without me.
So I am officially unconnecting for the betterment of me. So if you need me, just leave a message.
