How to Leave the Office Behind During a Vacation

If the office follows you on vacation, it is not much of a vacation. In our world of ever present connectivity, some people have a difficult time leaving the office behind. Vacation means vacation, not working, not emailing, not taking calls and with some skill, not thinking about it either. With a little advance preparation, delegation, communication and trust, leaving the office far behind is doable. A vacation without the worry is worth the effort.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Catch up as much of your work as possible before leaving. Be organized in your approach to cleaning up your email and action items so that your return is not muddled with unnecessary review of things that could have been handled before you left. Make notes to help jump start those things that can't be finished so you can easily pick up where you left off. A detailed to do list for your return is a good place to start. This requires some advance planning, but will make the transition back to the office easier.

2. Make sure your co-workers know who to contact in your absence. Put this information on your out of office reply in your email if possible. Important customers should be notified personally that you will be away. Avoid a group note, re-use the same one, but address them individually if you can. They should know who to contact in your absence and when you are returning.

3. Have someone act on your behalf while you are away. If this is not possible, clearly communicate via email, admin or answering service when you will be back and what to do if there is an urgent situation.

4. Define clearly what types of issues should be routed to which people for your admin or person acting on your behalf. If they know what to do in your absence, they won't need to call you and bother you with routine emergencies. Delegation and trust are key.

5. Schedule extra downtime on your return for catch up. You can do this by padding your communicated return by the amount of time you will need to get back into the swing of things.

6. Enjoy your vacation knowing that you left things in the hands of capable people. If they aren't capable of handling things in your absence, then you have more work to do before leaving.

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[DaveMason]

on 7/29/2008 Some good advice.

[Hentry]

on 7/29/2008 very nice ..