With the holiday season right around the corner, many employees are taking some well-deserved time off at the end of the year. One of the downsides of taking time off, however, can be feeling stressed and overwhelmed preparing for your leave. It can be a lot of work getting everything organized and completed before signing off, and the possibility of returning to a stack of work and to-do items can result in dread. Here are some ways to help you prepare so you can relax and enjoy your time off.
Get Organized
The first thing you should do is think about what tasks you need to complete before taking time off, and what tasks and projects need to be completed while you are away. In a perfect world, you would get everything squared away before leaving, but if you don’t have the time for that, at least take care of your top priority items. In an article on Monster, they write, “It’s good to always have a list of your ongoing projects handy, but especially so before you leave for vacation, says Tor Refsland, a productivity expert and founder of TimeManagementChef.com. Include a summary of each project, its current status, deadlines that will hit in your absence and any necessary contacts. An important part of this step includes anticipating any problems, Brassfield says. Make a list of possible worst-case scenarios, and provide clear instructions as to how co-workers should handle each. Don’t leave it up to them to figure out what to do.”
Establish a Plan and Backup Person
One way to comfortably take time off work is knowing you have someone covering you while you are away. In an article in Harvard Business Review, they write, “It’s good practice to reach out to someone at least a month ahead of time to act as your backup. This was a mistake I made during that high priority project — I reached out too late. Finding a backup early on helps them carefully review their own calendars and deliverables so they can choose to accept or reject your request. There are a couple ways to find yourself a backup. First, you could reach out to your manager, as they typically know how much work each person on the team has, or is likely to have, in the near future. Depending on the team’s workload, it’s possible your manager will ask you to divide your work between two people. Second, if you have strong relationships with your colleagues and you have identified someone who may be more suitable to be your backup, reach out to them. You may not be able to give every detail of what they’d need to do in that moment, but you can give them an idea of what you’re looking for.”
Let Others Know and Craft Your Out-of-Office
Apart from letting your manager and colleagues know you’re taking time off, if you routinely work with certain clients, let them know ahead of time the dates you will be out. In an article on Leaders, they write, “Be sure to provide an update to any of your active clients or partners outside of the company as well. It can be tempting to just let the email auto-responder indicate your absence, but avoid this tactic. Use this email to let them know you’ll be out of the office, provide the date you’re returning, and tell them who they can reach while you’re away. As productivity expert Mike Vardy explains, ‘It’ll also reduce the number of emails sitting in your inbox when you get back because you’re giving them more information.’” You will also want to have a well-written and thorough out-of-office message. In the same Harvard Business Review article mentioned above, they give an example of what to include in your out-of-office message writing, “Out-of-office messages do more than just tell people that you’re on vacation. They can be used to let people know who to reach out to while you’re away, whether different parts of your project are being managed by different people, and if you can be contacted for anything urgent. On your last day at work write out a clear, unambiguous, and helpful out-of-office message. You could say something like:
I’ll be away for a summer vacation between July 24th and August 7th. I will be hiking in the mountains with no/low network connection so I will not be checking emails or messages at this time.
My amazing colleague, Helen Smith, will be my backup in my absence. She can be contacted on helen.smith@email.com.
I’ll be back in the office on August 8th and I’ll respond to you as soon as I can.
While these steps may seem time-consuming, you (and your stakeholders) will undoubtedly benefit from your well-prepared backup to ensure business continuity.”