Work Blog: Off for the Holidays!
Since I wrapped up my backlog, I've had one more new post and realized that I'd missed one older post. Here's the older post, which went up on December 21, 2021 but is even somewhat topical for Thanksgiving later this week.
As always, some editing needed to be done. I:
- removed the name of my team from several places.
- I removed some screenshots as I don't care enough to embed them here. Instead I've put **ScreenShot** to represent them.
- A bunch of links to HR references were pulled out of the first paragraph.
This one was also edited by HR, and not to its advantage.
This team started blogging regularly way back in March 2021. Since then, we've posted at least twice a week, every week, but it is time for that streak to come to an end. With the holidays fast approaching domestically, many of our colleagues in will be off for the rest of the year, so we're going to follow their lead and take the next two weeks off from blogging. We will start a new streak in January with all the great content you've come to expect over the last 88 blog posts!
Perhaps you too are planning on taking PTO (Paid Time Off) over the December holidays in your part of the world. If so, don't forget this handy checklist of things to consider before you log off for the rest of the year, or for any PTO you take at any time of the year.
Tell the People You Work With
The obvious first step is putting in your PTO request for your manager to approve, but beyond that it's always worth mentioning to the people you are collaborating with regularly that you are going to be out of the office. For example, depending on how your team prefers to communicate you may need to consider some or all of these:
- Mention when you'll be out of office in your team meeting or standup.
- Drop the dates in your team's group chat.
- Add your PTO to your team's calendar.
If you work regularly with colleagues outside your team, make sure you update them as well. My personal rule of thumb is that if I plan to be out for one or two days, I tell my team. If I plan to be out 3-10 days, I tell people I work with regularly. If I'm going to be out more than 10 days, I tell anyone I have any kind of open action item with.
Prepare Your Calendar
As soon as you know when you will be out, make sure you mark that you'll be out of office on your calendar. If you make sure to set your Outlook reminder as "Out of Office" like this:
**ScreenShot of Outlook**
your calendar will be visibly blocked off to anyone who uses the Scheduling Assistance:
**ScreenShot of Outlook**
Or if they look at it in the calendar view, it will be visibly blocked off:
**ScreenShot of Outlook**
Once you've done that, go ahead and decline or reschedule any meetings that you have during that block of time. As we discussed in Making Meetings Work For You, the organizer of the meeting would much rather hear that you won't be there in advance than wonder if they should wait a few minutes for you to show up. Especially around major holidays, there's a good chance the meeting may get canceled if enough people will be out, so make sure you're communicating that in advance!
You may also want to block off time on your calendar for when you return so you can get caught up on your accumulated email or review the notes or recordings of any meetings that you may have missed.
Set Up Your Away Message
On your last day, make sure you set your Outlook Away message. Not sure what to write? Here's a good basic model to consider.
Thank you for contacting me. I am taking PTO and will not be checking email or messages while I am out. I will respond to your message when I return on <>. If you need a response prior to my return date, please see the below:
For <
>, please contact: <<person #1>>
For <
>, please contact: <<person #2>>
If this is an emergency, please contact my manager, <>.
If you regularly communicate with people outside of the organization, make sure you also set up an appropriate "Outside Your Organization" Away message.
Setting your Outlook Away message automatically sets your Away message for Teams. However, you may want to explicitly set your status to "Appear Offline" in Teams by clicking on your picture in the top right corner. You can also use the Duration option to have this reset automatically upon your return.
**ScreenShot of Teams**
Enjoy Your Vacation!
There is a large body of research about the positive effects of taking a vacation on your health. An important part of obtaining those positive effects is actually unplugging from work when you are on PTO. This means not looking at your email, your Teams messages or any of the other work systems you regularly interact with. If you normally work from home, shut down your work computer and try to keep it closed until the end of your scheduled time off.
I've observed that everyone here wants to be available and to help out, which is absolutely fantastic and a big reason I've been here almost 20 years. Having said that, there will always be someone to help out if you go offline for a week or two or more, especially if you've prepared your team for your absence.
Enjoy the Holidays!
And on that note, this blog is going to enjoy some downtime for the rest of the year so we can return relaxed and refreshed in January. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year, and we'll see you in 2022!
As always, some editing needed to be done. I:
- removed the name of my team from several places.
- I removed some screenshots as I don't care enough to embed them here. Instead I've put **ScreenShot** to represent them.
- A bunch of links to HR references were pulled out of the first paragraph.
This one was also edited by HR, and not to its advantage.
This team started blogging regularly way back in March 2021. Since then, we've posted at least twice a week, every week, but it is time for that streak to come to an end. With the holidays fast approaching domestically, many of our colleagues in will be off for the rest of the year, so we're going to follow their lead and take the next two weeks off from blogging. We will start a new streak in January with all the great content you've come to expect over the last 88 blog posts!
Perhaps you too are planning on taking PTO (Paid Time Off) over the December holidays in your part of the world. If so, don't forget this handy checklist of things to consider before you log off for the rest of the year, or for any PTO you take at any time of the year.
Tell the People You Work With
The obvious first step is putting in your PTO request for your manager to approve, but beyond that it's always worth mentioning to the people you are collaborating with regularly that you are going to be out of the office. For example, depending on how your team prefers to communicate you may need to consider some or all of these:
- Mention when you'll be out of office in your team meeting or standup.
- Drop the dates in your team's group chat.
- Add your PTO to your team's calendar.
If you work regularly with colleagues outside your team, make sure you update them as well. My personal rule of thumb is that if I plan to be out for one or two days, I tell my team. If I plan to be out 3-10 days, I tell people I work with regularly. If I'm going to be out more than 10 days, I tell anyone I have any kind of open action item with.
Prepare Your Calendar
As soon as you know when you will be out, make sure you mark that you'll be out of office on your calendar. If you make sure to set your Outlook reminder as "Out of Office" like this:
**ScreenShot of Outlook**
your calendar will be visibly blocked off to anyone who uses the Scheduling Assistance:
**ScreenShot of Outlook**
Or if they look at it in the calendar view, it will be visibly blocked off:
**ScreenShot of Outlook**
Once you've done that, go ahead and decline or reschedule any meetings that you have during that block of time. As we discussed in Making Meetings Work For You, the organizer of the meeting would much rather hear that you won't be there in advance than wonder if they should wait a few minutes for you to show up. Especially around major holidays, there's a good chance the meeting may get canceled if enough people will be out, so make sure you're communicating that in advance!
You may also want to block off time on your calendar for when you return so you can get caught up on your accumulated email or review the notes or recordings of any meetings that you may have missed.
Set Up Your Away Message
On your last day, make sure you set your Outlook Away message. Not sure what to write? Here's a good basic model to consider.
Thank you for contacting me. I am taking PTO and will not be checking email or messages while I am out. I will respond to your message when I return on <>. If you need a response prior to my return date, please see the below:
For <
>, please contact: <<person #1>>
For <
>, please contact: <<person #2>>
If this is an emergency, please contact my manager, <>.
If you regularly communicate with people outside of the organization, make sure you also set up an appropriate "Outside Your Organization" Away message.
Setting your Outlook Away message automatically sets your Away message for Teams. However, you may want to explicitly set your status to "Appear Offline" in Teams by clicking on your picture in the top right corner. You can also use the Duration option to have this reset automatically upon your return.
**ScreenShot of Teams**
Enjoy Your Vacation!
There is a large body of research about the positive effects of taking a vacation on your health. An important part of obtaining those positive effects is actually unplugging from work when you are on PTO. This means not looking at your email, your Teams messages or any of the other work systems you regularly interact with. If you normally work from home, shut down your work computer and try to keep it closed until the end of your scheduled time off.
I've observed that everyone here wants to be available and to help out, which is absolutely fantastic and a big reason I've been here almost 20 years. Having said that, there will always be someone to help out if you go offline for a week or two or more, especially if you've prepared your team for your absence.
Enjoy the Holidays!
And on that note, this blog is going to enjoy some downtime for the rest of the year so we can return relaxed and refreshed in January. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year, and we'll see you in 2022!