Preparing for Summer Vacations - How to Effectively Plan and Communicate PTO
If there is one thing I want you to learn from working with or learning from Career Civility, it’s to bring your humanity back into the workplace. I strongly believe that ‘business as usual’ does not need to be ‘business as usual’. Business can encompass, fortify, and cultivate environments of allowing, of disagreement, of friendship, of hardship, of support, and of success. We are programmed to believe we need to live in a world of ‘either or’. We either produce results OR we are a failure. We work hard OR we are restful. We are successful OR we fail. But I am here to tell you that we can live in a world of ‘both and’. We are both hardworking AND we know when to take breaks. We can be a success AND we can learn from our failures. We can take time off AND still be productive.
Business has become an always on, constant hum of an engine. Just like a computer, you need to charge up, restart, and shut down every now and then to keep your processor working at full speed.
This is your friendly reminder to take that summer vacation.
This is your permission to fully disconnect from work.
Take your vacation and take your rest because you deserve it.
Today’s blog post is here to help you effectively plan, prepare and communicate expectations around upcoming PTO in the workplace.
Because taking a vacation is hard. Not only are you cramming in a ton of work before you actually head out of town but it's also hard to totally ‘unplug’ AND a mountain of work inevitably waits for you upon your return.
Here is how to adequately prepare and plan for upcoming PTO
(so you can feel at ease when closing your computer before heading out on vacay 🌴)
Create a working document that you can share with colleagues and clients
Within this document, include the following: the dates you will be out, the projects currently in flight, any potential due dates, as well as any outstanding tasks and who owns them
By creating a working document, it communicates transparency and accountability while you are out.
2. Communicate it early, communicate it often
When you have planned PTO on the horizon, start communicating the dates you will be OOO as often as you can.
This can include adding your upcoming OOO dates to your email signature, concluding every meeting with a reminder about the upcoming dates, and by sharing your working document ahead of time.
It can look like this in action, “Hey all, before we wrap today’s meeting, just a reminder that I will out of the office all of next week. Please refer to the working document I created as the source of truth while I am out”
3. Lead by example
If you are scheduled to take time off yourself, do NOT respond to emails, slacks, or meeting requests. If you are always available, even while out of the office, it sets the tone and standard for others to always be available too. This is true for both managers and individual contributors and it WILL results in a lack of trust and higher levels of burnout.
4. ENJOY
I know this might be the hard one (it usually takes me 2-3 days into any vacation to actually relax and unplug) but do your best to know that you have prepared accordingly and that you set yourself and your team up for success while you are out. This will allow you to step away, guilt free, so you can enjoy your well-deserved time off.
As I mentioned, there is a lot that goes into planning and preparing to take time off. From creating a shared working document, to consistently communicating when you will be out, to the finest detail of creating an out of office message.
All of these communication practices matter to be successful in the workplace. And all of these communication skills will greatly contribute to you being able to ENJOY your time away from the office.
You are more than your work. Go enjoy your summer vacation.
