I recently returned from a two-week long vacation and, despite having a nice time away from the office, I almost hoped that I had never taken the time off in the first place.

That's because it took me days to go through the email and voice mail messages I had received while gone. Although I didn't need to worry about most of the emails, many of them still needed to be dealt with. I had to write replies and explain why I hadn't done so immediately. And although I had installed a vacation message that was automatically sent to everyone who emailed me while I was gone, many people still had emailed me back the second time and said they wanted to hear from me as soon as I came back.

It seems to me that every time I go on vacation, the days leading up to it and following it are less than pleasant. Before leaving, I try to do extra work so things are not left undone while I'm gone. And when I come back, I deal with stuff that happened while I was gone.

I don't know what the solution would be, but I wish it didn't have to be this way. As I see it, a vacation should be something you look forward to. And coming back from vacation should not be an experience you dread because of the amount of work you know is waiting for you.