For me, this road trip is a sabbatical – an extended period away from work where (in theory) I’m not paying any attention to what’s going on in the office. It’s four weeks of unpaid* leave, and two weeks of vacation. Tracie, on the other hand, continues to service her clients, but is working a reduced workload. There have been connectivity challenges on this trip, but they’ve impacted her much more severely than I; when I have no connectivity, I just resign myself to wait for the next town and maybe it will be better. Tracie, on the other hand, has had a few client issues that needed attention NOW, regardless of where we were.
That said, I’m not completely ignoring the office. I stay current on my email, and have responded to probably a dozen requests while I’m away – most are just referring people to someone else in the office who can take care of the issue, if it’s pressing. Every few days, I clean out my inbox, because I don’t want 1500 emails in my inbox when I’m back in the office next week.
Today, I’m flummoxed: my password has expired, and I’m in Red Lodge, Montana. I can still use the computer (I’m using the Willis computer, as my hard drive crashed way back in week one of this road trip) but I can’t access any of my employer’s network until I change the password.
I’m torn. It was so much simpler when I didn’t have to think about it, and the email was there for me to sift through at my leisure. Now that I have to take direct action, I’m not sure if I want to go in and renew my access.
I think that I can go “off grid” for the next week. On Wednesday next week, I’ll be back in the office. I can live without corporate email for that long. And besides, I still have email on my phone. 😛
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* The Willis Choice Plan is actually paying me 50% of my regular salary during my 4-week sabbatical. Not too shabby.
