How to Stress Less About Leaving the Office for A Vacation
Do you feel drained, less energized about going to work, or are lacking creative ideas and solutions? It may be time for a vacation.
According to the US Travel Association, more than half of Americans (55%) are still not using all their paid time off. In 2018, American workers failed to use 768 million days of PTO – a 9% increase from 2017.
Have you been thinking about going on a vacation but worry about getting behind or important tasks not getting done? I used to feel like I would never be able to take a vacation until I learned how to properly manage my time off.
Here are some tips to have a stress-free vacation:
Decide on Vacation Time at the Beginning of the Year
The last Tuesday in January is National Plan for Vacation Day (NPVD). While there may never be a perfect time to take off work, there are usually times of the year better than others. As an HR Generalist, I never schedule vacation during, or around, annual enrollment because I know my workload will be much heavier than normal and I will need to be present for many meetings.
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Give Your Team Advanced Notice
As soon as your vacation is approved, put a meeting notice on the calendars of those you work closely with. It will give them advanced notice as well as remind them when your departure approaches, to ask you any pertinent last-minute questions.
Designate A Backup
I schedule time with my backup right before I leave to go over any potential situations that may come up and things they may need to cover. Scheduling this meeting right before you leave allows you to brief them on any current situations. I create as many work instructions as possible during the year which allows me to pass these on before a vacation. Work instructions are the steps of a process either written or mapped out, so someone can perform the task in your absence.
Look at your calendar for the time you will be out to ensure you are not missing anything approaching that you need to prepare your backup for.
Set the Expectation for Communication
Make it clear if you will be able to be reached and if it gives you peace of mind to check in once a day, then do so. But then put your phone away! You cannot appreciate the view if you are too busy looking at your phone. If you will not be able to be reached, make sure everyone knows who should be contacted in your absence. You may also want to block out the last two hours before you plan to leave and the first two hours when you return, to wrap -up and catch- up.
Set up out-of-office responses on your email, your office phone, and maybe even change your voicemail on your work cell phone. You do not want a customer or co-worker to think you are being unresponsive if they don’t know, or forget, you are out. I have many employees come to my office, so I also put a sign on my door with the dates that I will be out and who to see till my return.
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Create a Pre-Vacation Checklist
While you may not be able to anticipate everything that is going to happen while you are out, there are tasks that need to be completed consistently every week. Make sure you put these items on a checklist to ensure you have taken care of them before you go or explain them to your backup. I started a checklist document and over the course of a week kept adding items to it as they came up. I have everything I do for new hires starting Monday, employees leaving Friday and everything in between. I now have a checklist ready to go instead of desperately trying to remember everything that needs to be done.
While I get a deep satisfaction from my job, sometimes I need to take a break. By managing my vacation the way I manage my daily work day, I reduce stress and better enjoy my time off. It is important to remember that we all deserve a vacation.
Jessica L. Beck is an HR Professional living in Florida with her family. She writes on human resources and lifestyle topics with a passion for process improvement in all areas of life so we can cut the clutter and enjoy life more.
Find Jessica’s new book, Be Your Own Career Coach: A Workbook to Navigate Career Change, here.
Read more of her writing here: Jessica Beck Copywriter (canva.site)
Contact Information
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicacarrarobeck/
Email: jlbeckbooks@gmail.com
Header Image Credit: Te lensFix. Find it here.
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