Taking time off
I have chosen a different topic to write about to the one I mentioned last week. I have just returned from 10 days of vacation, and I thought the need to take time off and recharge the batteries was a better subject to tackle. It is also a companion piece to last week’s post on delegation of authority.
Unusually for me, I really needed this vacation. Summer is usually a quieter time in the industry which gives me a chance to think about direction and strategy. Whilst important, this work tends to be a lower tempo than the normal frenetic pace of decisions, deadlines and targets. This year I changed roles at the beginning of summer. Establishing and maintaining credibility in the workplace is essential regardless of how long you have spent in a particular role. However, with new roles you don’t have as much goodwill and time invested with colleagues and the degree to which you need to communicate your values and goals increases. By the time September 14th came around I was ready to completely shut down both my computer and the part of my brain that focuses on work.
The reason for this post is that I see some colleagues who are unable to switch off to the degree required to enjoy their vacation and return recharged. In most cases this appears to be an inability to delegate sufficient responsibilities in their absence, a lack of trust in the team that the work has been delegated to, or a badly timed vacation where you would have been better off continuing to work.
For me the gold standard approach to balancing work demands with vacation is continuing to check in with work to a degree that does not detract at all from my vacation but allows me to properly switch off and ensures that my return to the office won’t be a frenzied mess that I could have prevented. I am not advocating a complete ban on checking in, as this would seem unnecessarily strict. But I don’t want any of my vacation time spent worrying needlessly about decisions made in my absence. Worrying about working whilst on vacation is forbidden.
To establish this gold standard, I think the following are some good ground rules. Firstly, don’t take vacation during a time that you know is going to be busy. If you book a vacation and something comes up at work that is going to destroy your ability to enjoy the vacation and fully unwind, my honest advice is to reschedule the vacation if possible. If not possible, I would schedule a follow-up vacation a few months later even if it is just a couple of days staycation.
When it comes to delegation, your greatest friends are consistency of approach and clear communication of team goals and objectives. I like to think that I can predict my boss’s reaction to most issues that may emerge. That isn’t hubris on my part. Firstly, she is a great boss, shares her thinking willingly and is consistent in her decision-making. Secondly, the company pays me to offer recommendations and solutions for areas that fall within my remit. If the system is working correctly and an issue emerges whilst my boss is on vacation, I know our broad goals and objectives, I know what a good outcome would look like to my boss because I share the same vision and I know the details sufficiently well that I would recommend a particular decision to her if she was in the office. When I go on vacation, I expect the same from my team.
If this is working, why do I still check-in? The first reason is that by checking-in I can express my confidence in the team and their decision-making. Real-time validation gives an extra layer of comfort that we are hitting the gold standard. Secondly, there are easy tasks that I either forgot to delegate in the system (PO approvals) or I can’t delegate in the system (approving vacation requests). In this case the iPhone tools are so easy to use that I can cover these tasks off quickly and easily and prevent any hold-ups for the wider team. In this instance a little effort on my part can be discretely done without interrupting my trip and has an outsized impact on the efficiency of the team.
I find it concerning when members of the team or adjacent teams refuse to switch-off whilst on vacation and return to the office complaining that they didn’t get the break they needed due to work. Provided they haven’t chosen to go away at a busy time, this could point to a team that is simply overwhelmed with work, and there isn’t sufficient time in the calendar for everyone to take a full break. This is a risk factor that will need to be addressed at some point as you can only ask a team to run at this pace for a limited period before it completely breaks down, which is also the reason why vacation time is so important.
If it isn’t a busy period, then it usually points to a lack of confidence in the team. This may be justified if someone has inherited a failing team. If this is not the case it could be an unwillingness to delegate effectively and a highly centralized decision-making structure. This is probably a bottleneck at the best of times, will not be particularly motivating to staff and will strain to the point of failure when you take a well-earned vacation. If any of this feels familiar, my next question would be to what extent is anyone benefitting from this arrangement and what positive steps can be taken to break out of this cycle? Ideally the manager would make adjustments, but if this isn’t likely then taking the initiative before your manager leaves on vacation to request the transfer of authority (and to verbally explain how you would resolve likely issues that emerge) could be an equally effective first step. Proactive solution-led updates during the vacation may also allow the manager to resist the temptation to jump in unnecessarily.
As you can see, I spent my vacation switching-off and then whilst marveling at the restorative powers of switching-off, I thought about this week’s blog post. Next week I am switching gears again and looking at the one meeting where I regret not speaking up and the reasons why I didn’t. This is very much related to the previously promised post on authenticity in the workplace, which I may approach from different angles over a couple of weeks. We are now on the home straight and into the last quarter of the year.