My husband thinks he can "work" on board with wifi on the Wonder. Is he out of his mind?

[Elleinthecity]

All kidding aside and totally unhelpful, but I consider myself extremely fortunate that my current job has no out-of-office requirements. I'm of the opinion that we should adopt that French law (I think, it might be an EU thing) where your employer has to pay you overtime if they call you at home.

I certainly follow this with my team. Sadly I’m not his boss.

 

[Elleinthecity]

I have the type of job where it can be really difficult to step away for any length of time; it's hard on me as well as on people I work with. But I have to say that I have actually appreciated how cruising with DCL and its crappy internet (prior to recent upgrades....if any) has forced me to disconnect. Lol.

When I took a vacation last year, I actively sought a resort with crappy WiFi for that very reason.

 

[tvguy]

He has to access files via a VPN. That’s how his company sets things up. I don’t they’d allow downloading files to a local drive. I agree that everyone should be able to take a vacation. Sadly his management does not.

Only slightly off topic. On was on Jury Duty and a potential Juror said he could not be away from work. His boss would not allow it. Judge subpoenaed the boss to question him about that policy. Boss confirmed it. Judge asked if there could be an exception. Boss said no. Judge "offered" the Boss until the next day to think about it. Oh, and the Judge offered free room and board .........in the County Jail (that is how the Judge put it).......to think about it. Amazing, all of sudden the time off wasn't a problem.

 

[meliscan]

Has he told his company where/how he will be accessing the VPN? I am sure Alaska is fine but when my boss we on vacation in Mexico she was specifically told not to work as they didn't' want her accessing our network on less than secure networks. It is something to think about. How important is that work vs the security of their entire system? I would also caution using some internet cafes. If they need him to work they should give him a hotspot to use in port. At sea you won't have great connectivity.

 

[Elleinthecity]

Has he told his company where/how he will be accessing the VPN? I am sure Alaska is fine but when my boss we on vacation in Mexico she was specifically told not to work as they didn't' want her accessing our network on less than secure networks. It is something to think about. How important is that work vs the security of their entire system? I would also caution using some internet cafes. If they need him to work they should give him a hotspot to use in port. At sea you won't have great connectivity.

I know my company would not let me access our VPN in areas like a port Internet cafe. Might be worth looking into. Thanks.

 

[FreeTime]

When I took a vacation last year, I actively sought a resort with crappy WiFi for that very reason.

My business partner’s wife did this thinking it would cause him to disconnect. Instead, what could have easily been him checking in for 30 mins a day to make sure there were no fires turned into critical business crippling problems as the items were not something in my wheelhouse (that is why we are partners, we balance each other well). Staff was extremely unhappy and the clients more so. Because of our line of work, even with having excellent developers and redundancy plans in place, the wave effect impacted thousands of clients. Now she doesn’t get a vacation for awhile due to lost revenue as a result of her selfishness that is was all about her. I 100% learned a lesson as well, when you plan for the worse, if your key relationship/skilled person isn’t available during peak times, even for a quick chat, it can be devastating. So if a good back up isn’t in place, the person must be able to be connected with.

 

[juliann1977]

Depends on the situation... if the choice is between either "I'm able to do a little bit of work in order to not have a disaster waiting when I get back" or having to cancel the cruise due to work obligations, I'd go for "try to do a little bit of work" option. Not ideal by any means, but sometimes it's the best solution.

And that's the choice in question. My husband rarely completely disconnects, so the DCL connectivity must be good enough for his purposes. When he takes calls, it is during port days. We'd never go on vacation if it were a complete disconnection.

 

[esc2476]

Unfortunately, I am in the same situation, but am sailing on the Fantasy so fingers crossed. It is not that I need to do a ton of substantive work each day while I am on vacation, but I have clients that e-mail me emergencies when I have been helping them over the last number of years plus a lot of what I do is very time sensitive. So, being able to check e-mail every few hours for just 5-10 minutes is really helpful and allows me to relax and get the work to the right resource.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

He has to access files via a VPN. That’s how his company sets things up. I don’t they’d allow downloading files to a local drive. I agree that everyone should be able to take a vacation. Sadly his management does not.

I believe that the Wonder's internet is similar to that of the Dream. I was on the Dream back in May, and I spent most of my internet package trying to get access. I could get on Facebook, and see webpages, but never could connect to the VPN while at sea. When we were in port I tethered to my phone and was able to access my work files.

Good luck to your husband.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

All kidding aside and totally unhelpful, but I consider myself extremely fortunate that my current job has no out-of-office requirements. I'm of the opinion that we should adopt that French law (I think, it might be an EU thing) where your employer has to pay you overtime if they call you at home.

^^^ This! Not cruising but on a very expensive WDW vacation at the Poly. First my husband's work called, then mine. It just interrupts the whole vibe. I want my vacation back- with the above!!

 

[dina444444]

Unfortunately, I am in the same situation, but am sailing on the Fantasy so fingers crossed. It is not that I need to do a ton of substantive work each day while I am on vacation, but I have clients that e-mail me emergencies when I have been helping them over the last number of years plus a lot of what I do is very time sensitive. So, being able to check e-mail every few hours for just 5-10 minutes is really helpful and allows me to relax and get the work to the right resource.

Fantasy has the new internet setup.

 

[Elleinthecity]

I believe that the Wonder's internet is similar to that of the Dream. I was on the Dream back in May, and I spent most of my internet package trying to get access. I could get on Facebook, and see webpages, but never could connect to the VPN while at sea. When we were in port I tethered to my phone and was able to access my work files.

Good luck to your husband.

Thank you. I will bring my MiFi and see if it helps on port days!

 

[mjkpreno]

My business partner’s wife did this thinking it would cause him to disconnect. Instead, what could have easily been him checking in for 30 mins a day to make sure there were no fires turned into critical business crippling problems as the items were not something in my wheelhouse (that is why we are partners, we balance each other well). Staff was extremely unhappy and the clients more so. Because of our line of work, even with having excellent developers and redundancy plans in place, the wave effect impacted thousands of clients. Now she doesn’t get a vacation for awhile due to lost revenue as a result of her selfishness that is was all about her. I 100% learned a lesson as well, when you plan for the worse, if your key relationship/skilled person isn’t available during peak times, even for a quick chat, it can be devastating. So if a good back up isn’t in place, the person must be able to be connected with.

I get that some people are critical to some roles, but what would happen if this person had to have emergency surgery or a family emergency and had no choice but to take time off, or god forbid, got hit by a bus and killed? Would the company fail? Companies need redundancy no matter the situation. Life happens. Companies spend a LOT of money on business continuity plans, sounds like that needs to happen here. No company should be so reliant on a single person that the business fails without them. I get a small company that's just getting going but those people generally aren't taking time off unless they have to. I'm in a critical role now (I run an entire support department for a $100m company - the sole and only support person - critical to financial users constantly) but I made it clear if I can't get my time off when I need it I won't be working there. Never been an issue, I have a backup who can manage well enough (and yes, they get overwhelmed when I take time off) and we are planning to get more backup trained as well because that's what's supposed to happen.

I work to live, not live to work. I am guilty of checking email while off, or pinging other coworkers I coordinate with to see how things are. But once I am offline for good, I am offline. That person needs to remember, if the tables were turned, the company would get rid of her in a moment's notice if it "suited" the business needs at the time. I always keep that in my mind. Companies have no real loyalty, so thus I am not "loyal" enough to interfere with my mental health/personal life. I've learned this the hard way over the years....