My father, having only a 9th grade education, had a series of low level positions -- sometimes called "blue collar". He worked hard but, at the end of eight or nine hours of work, when he came home he did not think about work. It didn't matter if the job was delivering soda (pop) to stores, lathing parts for Boeing, or cooking donuts. Work was left solely at work. This characteristic applies to most people in "blue collar" positions. My son, working at a local grocery store, does not come home and think about whether the onions will need to be moved to make room for a new crop of peaches. Having made it to the label of "coordinator" he does find himself thinking about what the personnel situation will be when he arrives -- but, not being in charge of scheduling, he doesn't really worry about it (he just tries to mentally prepare himself for possibilities).
Besides salaries and benefits, this may be one of the primary differences between "blue" and "white" collar work. When you get to the manager level, or as a "professional", then you have responsibilities and duties that can be, and often are, worked on after leaving the actual work environment (assuming that you are not remote -- if remote, they extend past the theoretical work hour boundaries). Among other reasons, that is why "Members of Technical Staff" at Bell Labs were considered to be "managers".
These are factors of life on a daily basis but they apply even more strongly to vacations. A blue-collar worker in the US (this differs considerably between different countries in the world) may, or may not, get a vacation. And that vacation, if given, may be paid leave or unpaid leave. Assuming that they have gotten a vacation -- once they have left work there are likely no thoughts about work until that day occurs when they have to think about going BACK to work.
This is not the situation for most white collar workers. The situation varies a lot -- from the situation being very similar to that of a blue collar worker to the situation where it would be very difficult to recognize that they were on a vacation (perhaps a different locale). The "vacation spectrum" is somewhat designated by the position but mostly determined by the interactions between workers and the next levels "up" from their position (whether they be a VP, line manager, supervisor, department head, or whatever).
We are split between the "ideal" vacation, the "optimal" vacation, and the "minimal" vacation. There are a lot of articles about the benefits of clean breaks from work -- an "ideal" vacation where the person no longer needs to think about work. They are able to allow the mental work grooves to fade and let those furrows rest so that they will be prepared for new crops to be planted when they return to work.
Work situations often do not allow such "ideal" situations. This is an inherent part of the position. If you are a salesperson, your clients still may need you and your potential clients must not feel neglected. If you are a technical person, then your tasks and projects continue towards some future goal and the less you pay attention to that progress, while on vacation, the more difficult it is to resume work upon return. If you are in a managerial position, you should be able to feel comfortable that you have set things up, and delegated, such that all will continue without your intervention -- but that "should" very often does not crystalize -- in part because others doing tasks want to make sure they are doing them "right". Working with these inherent parts allows one to hit an "optimal" vacation. You get as much rest on average such that, when you return, work can continue without having to "catch up" and do two weeks worth of work during that first week of return.
Which leads us to that "minimal" vacation (that looks almost identical to a work period) which we want to avoid. We can do a lot to avoid the "minimal" and approach the "optimal".
- Learn to delegate and make sure that they have the knowledge, and abilities, such that you can be comfortable trusting them.
- Organize, and document, the needs to be taken care of while you are absent.
- Make sure that all information (file access, customer names and numbers/email addresses, passwords if absolutely needed, ...) is known to those who have need of such.
- AND leave contact information such that they can contact you if NEEDED within a reasonable period (say 3-hours).
Note that you should not, and should not have to, be able to be contacted every single minute. If so, then you need to work on preparation better next time. The potential to check in, or be contacted, every few hours is reasonable -- being "on call" 24/7 is not.
You may not have the "ideal" vacation but, with proper preparation (and attitude), you can have a vacation that you can enjoy and give you a respite from, and readiness to return to, work.
