A VC - Latest Comments in Working On Vacation

Re: Working On Vacation

dickspotter — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:47:00 -0000

you're a dick

Re: Working On Vacation

JohnClifford — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:58:57 -0000

You post makes sense and if youre spouse has a blackberry and work to follow up on , it makes sense to schedule working time slots and non working time slots. Since paragliding is my passion while on vacation it makes it easier to put the blackberry away for most of each day on vacation.

Re: Working On Vacation

Vacation — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:01:24 -0000

A vacation is a way to pull our family closer by spending some quality time together. We basically don't extract time to spend with the family. Children are busy in schooling and we are busy in our work. So heading for a vacation is a wonderful idea to minimize the stuff.

Re: Working On Vacation

greenskeptic — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:16:21 -0000

Last week, I took a vacation in Florida with my family. It was my first real time "off" since starting a new role six months ago and my wife and kids really needed me to focus on family for the week. My boss, however, had asked that I participate in an executive team conference call on Monday. "If you have one hour to spend on work next week, that would be it," she said. Frankly, it felt a bit like a command rather than a request.

So, I participated. It went for an hour and a half and, based upon the results of that meeting, I had to spend another half hour crafting an email to do "damage control" in response to some comments made in the meeting. My wife, kids, and mother had gone to the beach and I was to follow. However, I missed the opportunity to join them.

I resented it and was grumpy for the rest of the day. So, I decided to fulfill my pledge to my family, turned off the email and phone and stayed away from it until after we had returned (although I did continue to twitter and blog during the week).

Folks at work were probably pissed at me for tuning out, based upon a few emails that I received after my return, and there were a couple of things that would have benefitted from my response. But my family felt better about my presence (I've been traveling a lot in the last six months, including commuting from Philadelphia to DC almost weekly) and I actually started to relax by the middle of the week. Tuning out was definitely worth it.

The bottom line: my family is the most important thing in my life. And if I haven't been paying enough attention to them during my working days (of necessity), then I need to recharge with them and reconnect with them and be reminded about the true purpose of the work I do.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Fred. Always stimulating.

Re: Working On Vacation

bfeld — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 09:08:36 -0000

Fred - I finally got around to posting a response to this post - it's titled What's A Vacation

Re: Working On Vacation

fredwilson — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:19:03 -0000

Fast

Re: Working On Vacation

fredwilson — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:02:03 -0000

Thanks matt

Tried leaving a comment. Not sure it took it

Fred

Re: Working On Vacation

Matt Douglas — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:10:05 -0000

Fred,
I just posted a response to this post on my blog. Consider it a gift from me to you. http://www.mypunchbowl.com/...

Re: Working On Vacation

gregory — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:55:18 -0000

having been doing nothing for fifteen years in south india, except for a bit of art and a lot of meditation, i got what i wanted from down time, and am ready to enter the stream again, for, let's say, fifteen years of flat out.... should be easy, just let it flow

Re: Working On Vacation

Antman — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:05:27 -0000

How do ya type on an eliptical trainer?

Re: Working On Vacation

fredwilson — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:02:10 -0000

I think that's not fixable, and maybe it shouldn't be

Re: Working On Vacation

fredwilson — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:16:14 -0000

nice one citizen kane

Re: Working On Vacation

fredwilson — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:12:03 -0000

A self torture device :)

Re: Working On Vacation

Karen E. — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:25:57 -0000

The other point I'm making is that it is very scary scenario to contemplate having children when you are used to the payoff that relationships in business provide. Having children means - eventually, ultimately - you simply cannot truly, deeply "be there" for your clients because their needs are (as a category) at odds with kids' needs. Which might not be a problem, but if you need to pay bills, kids don't give you a paycheck after you've nurtured them by text message from the elliptical trainer. Can you please fix that, Fred? Isn't there a startup working to change that? Oy.

Re: Working On Vacation

fredwilson — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:07:02 -0000

This comment thread is getting interesting. Thanks for joining the discussion craig

Fred

Re: Working On Vacation

fredwilson — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:05:03 -0000

Brad feld has something like that on his treadmill

Re: Working On Vacation

fredwilson — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:04:09 -0000

I am not sure that would work in this day and age

Maybe a 24 hold period might work!

Re: Working On Vacation

racy_rick — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:55:44 -0000

Vacations are needed to combat stress. I believe a work-home relationship is needed, but barriers must be setup. I think your own self-importance is probably stressing you out all of the time.

Take a vacation from your vacation sometime. Clear some time from your work so that you aren't needed.

Re: Working On Vacation

notreallysure — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:41:44 -0000

Story is Nepoleon would not read correspondence until it was 3 months old. He assumed most anything would have taken care of itself by then and anything real important he would have heard about directly. I like that theory a lot.

Re: Working On Vacation

andyswan — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:23:09 -0000

Comment of the week!

Re: Working On Vacation

LoungeALittle — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:18:59 -0000

I think this is really sad. The only thing that you have no more of is time. Why dont you spend it doing things that really matter? ... like family or saving the planet? Seriously ... if you dont do that deal will you lose your house, family or not be able to put dinner on the table? I doubt it.

I used to get caught up in the rush of work until i realised that is not what life is about. Life is not a competition. Relax a bit.

Just before you take your last breath you will wonder why you didnt pay less attention to work. Thats not cool.

-Lounge.

Re: Working On Vacation

Craig Newmark — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:13:20 -0000

What is "vacation"?

Craig
craig@craigslist.org

Re: Working On Vacation

Rick Sparks — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:20:49 -0000

Step one - tell them to shut the f*** up and let you work so you can keep making money.

Re: Working On Vacation

charlie crystle — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:07:02 -0000

Family is a relationship-intensive business, too.

I have ruined enough vacations that at this point my planning for vacation has little to do with where I'm going and much to do with how I hand things off and complete things before I go. There is no such thing as a working vacation. You're either shortchanging the vacation or shortchanging work, and feeling crappy about both. Or at least I do ;)

So what I do now is work on the travel days, plus the first day there, then put everything away. And it works so much better, and my work is better when I return.

Re: Working On Vacation

fredwilson — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:55:11 -0000

That's noon nyc time!