Last week I was honored with a trip to Rome for the Redgate President’s Club. I was awarded this, along with our top people in Sales, for the work I did in 2025. It was a fun trip, but as we prepared to depart Cambridge, one of the rules our Chief Revenue Officer gave us was:

Don’t work this week

She told us that the company should be able to survive a week without us. On Wednesday, I got reminded of this when I replied to a few Slack messages.

Thursday I got reminded again.

By Friday she had given up.

It’s not that I don’t want to get away from work, or don’t, but there are things that come up and can be easily dealt with. In both cases, I had people ping me about things that are happening this week (18May) or in two weeks (1 Jun), and I need to ensure I’m prepped. I also had responses on a couple of SQL Server Central tickets, that I needed to provide a few details on.

These were small things, and I wasn’t checking email or most Slack messages, only a few channels where I knew there would be some relevant activity. I also scanned email looking for only ticket responses so I could provide info if needed.

Sometimes work takes priority over other things. I’ve had to handle a few things on sabbaticals. I’ve had to respond on vacation for certain things. In general I tell people to leave me alone, and they do for the most part.

I’m not upset, and it’s the price of being successful and involved. Finding this balance is important, and it’s easy to work too much, or too little. I feel I’ve got a pretty good balance when I go on vacation, minimizing interruptions, though certainly not eliminating them.

That being said, I did have a good time. Not sure why I’m not smiling, but the Colosseum was amazing.