The PTO Guardian

How to complete The PTO Guardian

Taking the leave you have earned and genuinely unplugging, with no inbox peeks or quick Slack checks, is what makes a break actually restore you. Half-present vacations train your team to expect you are always reachable; a clean disconnect resets both that expectation and your nervous system.

1. Book the dates officially and put them on the shared calendar weeks in advance.
2. Wrap or hand off active work, and name a specific colleague as point of contact while you are out.
3. Set an autoresponder and Slack status with your return date and the backup contact, without promising to monitor anything.
4. Remove email and Slack apps from your phone, or log out and mute notifications for the whole trip.
5. On return, block time to catch up rather than trying to clear everything the first morning.

Tips

• Tell your team plainly that you will be offline; ambiguity is what pulls you back in.
• If you truly must, allow one fixed 15-minute check per day instead of grazing all day.
• Brief your backup before you leave so they can actually cover, not just forward things to you.

What counts as done

You used the full block of leave and went the entire time without reading or answering work messages.