I’m pretty certain that customers just know when you are busy. They know when you have company all-hands or all-day company kickoffs… because that’s when they intuitively know you are overwhelmed and exhausted, and thus they then reach out to you, insisting they need help with x or y task, or that they absolutely MUST get on the phone or a video conference with you because they totally need your help….. even if said customer had totally ignored you or failed to respond to your emails from weeks or even months prior. Last week and this week have been especially exhausting because of our annual company kickoff, and because, well, I had to reschedule customer meetings around these huge time blocks. And then, the ad hoc requests started coming in far more than they normally would!

I just feel exhausted. I’ve even had dreams about work. And then it suddenly dawned on me… I haven’t had a real vacation in over a year, since we were in Australia and Indonesia. I’ve really only taken one day off here or there this whole year, other than the days off I’ve been given for Wellness Days or national holidays. I’ve had no REAL break from work to really unplug and relax. I really need to do something more intentional and take time off…. but we can’t really safely go anywhere. What am I going to do with myself other than sit around my house, exercise, meditate, cook, make videos, read….? I’ve already read four books and we’re not even halfway through February this year!!

For most of my career, I’ve been in a customer facing role, meaning that I interact with customers who use my company’s software as my actual day job. There are lots of upsides to being in a customer facing role in a non-pandemic era: you get to travel for work (and hence, can really load up on status via miles and hotel points), your role at work is taken seriously because you are essentially the voice of the customer; if you work on high-profile customers, for the most part, you’re probably in a relatively secure position. But the downsides? Customers sometimes can see you as not being human, meaning that they will not necessarily respect boundaries of off-hours to call you on your cell with something they consider urgent (the last time I checked, we didn’t work in the ER). They may not care that you have other customers and other meetings; they may expect that you respond to every email they send you literally as soon as they send it, and then react angrily when there’s a “delay” in your response (as in, in 4 hours or even, GASP, the next day!). They may not care that you had to take the day off because you got sick or had a family emergency and insist you get them a response anyway. They also may not care that you get a national holiday off since they may not have that day off.

The last example actually happened to me for the first time today, and I was really in shock. A customer asked to reschedule a meeting to a later time, and he asked if I was available on February 15th, which is actually President’s Day, meaning our office would be closed. I told him that our offices would be closed that day, but I’d be available to chat the following Tuesday. He had the balls to respond, asking if I could make an exception and meet with his team on that Monday. Well, that was easy to say no to; NO, I’m NOT making an exception for you or anyone work related on a NATIONAL HOLIDAY.

I told a colleague about this story after it happened, and she responded, “I see customers like that as children who ask if they can have cookies before dinner. They know the answer is no, but that doesn’t mean they won’t ask, anyway, to see if there is some slim chance they may actually get their way.”