Learning to Unplug – Discussion Topic at Careers Over Coffee

At Careers Over Coffee on Thursday, March 25th, we discussed the difficulty of “unplugging;” not just turning off our phones at the end of the day, but in truly getting away from work. Members shared stories of being on vacation but still having to deal with “emergencies” for their clients, typing away in their hotel room while their family was at the pool. I passed out copies of WCA member Maura Thomas’ excellent article for the Harvard Business Review, “Your Late Night Emails are Hurting Your Team,” and my friend Tanya Schevitz’ article for pbs.org called “Tips for Unplugging from Tech to Reconnect with your family.

Tips we shared with each other included only checking email for 10 minutes each morning while on vacation, and then turning your phone off; using your auto-notify religiously when you are out of town with family, so people know you’re on vacation and making a list on paper before you go to bed so you aren’t fretting about work in the middle of the night.

I also gave out little cell phone ‘sleeping bags” from Reboot (a Jewish nonprofit which sponsors the National Day of Unplugging.)  In general, as Coral Southwell said, “We need to learn to stop thinking about work when we’re not at the office.”

– Also, Rosemary Hook recommended the Austin Digital Jobs Facebook page (it is a closed group but many WCA members belong to it and anyone can apply to the group.) She said it has a lot of great information for job seekers.

Careers Over Coffee is the perfect forum for those who like small groups and good conversation. We offer these breakfast get-togethers once a month at north and south locations. Come prepared to meet other like-minded professionals and discuss your career in an intimate setting. Attendees get to choose the career-related topics they’d like to discuss.