Out of office text written in sand on a beach suggesting work life balance.It's summer, vacation time. I wondered how COVID had impacted lawyers' plans for vacation. Vacations pre-COVID meant time away from the office for rest, relaxation and inspiration. Sometimes we were available for emergencies, sometimes not.

Post-COVID, many people are rarely in the office. Many work remotely all or part of each work week. Are vacations still "a part of the year, regularly set aside, when normal activities … are suspended," as defined on dictionary.com? Who takes them and what do they look like?

I asked my panel. The consensus is that everyone should take time away to recharge and renew, and most of them did. They vacationed within the past year, but for shorter periods of time and closer to home. At the same time, most did not fully disconnect from the office, a key element of the traditional vacation definition. Let's look at their thinking in more detail.