How to make sure work doesn't take over your holiday

Published on Wed 27 Jul 2011

Holiday time. Apparently. Although for many of us August might end up just looking a bit like any other month except for the lack of a school run impeding our progress into work.  According to a recent survey from IFF Research, over two-thirds of employers took less than two weeks holiday during the whole of last year, with an eighth saying they had no time off at all. It’s even more of a challenge for sole traders to take a break with sixteen per cent taking no time off during the year.

And of course getting on a plane in the first place is only the first hurdle. The biggest obstacle to a work-free week or two in the sun is the fact that the work can now come with us and often does. All over the costas and islands, even as we speak, British holidaymakers are setting up impromptu offices equipped with laptops, dongles and smartphones, often under the relentless glare of a blazing sun and disapproving partner.

But there are steps we can do to manage a holiday better, to make sure we get a proper break and leave at least a large proportion of the work where it belongs. Here are our own seven tips:

1. Let people know when you are away. Ensure that key individuals – colleagues, clients and suppliers - are aware of your impending absence at least two weeks in advance. As well as preparing an autoreply message in your emails while you are away, consider adding a note to your emails in the fortnight before your holiday to make people aware when you will be away. You don’t need to say where you’re going, especially if it’s somewhere good so it looks like you’re showing off. Unless you want to show off, obviously.

2. Make sure you have a wicket keeper. Come to an arrangement with a colleague that you will each cover for the other while on holiday. That means knowing each other’s jobs well enough and knowing what work is on the go so it may have to be somebody who works closely with you. What can also help them to cover your break is...

3. Make sure you leave a dummy of yourself in the office. Not literally of course, although that may be a great way of finding out if anybody notices you’ve gone, but instead leave behind a file of key contacts, the status of ongoing projects, the location of any information your colleagues may need to find and send it to the people who may need it.

4. Timing is everything. It’s not always easy and seems obvious but try to pick a period when your workload is not at its peak. The underlying cause of presenteeism is invariably the fear that everything will go to pot if you’re not there. So deal with the root cause and choose a time when you feel less indispensable.

5. Downgrade your phone. Yes it feels wrong but one of the other root causes of holiday presenteeism is access to the infrastructure to stay linked to work. So get rid of that infrastructure for a short while. Leave your smartphone at home and take a dumbphone with you instead. The less you spend on it and the fewer features it has the better. You can buy a phone for thirteen quid or less that that does pretty much nothing except calls and texts. Buy one of those and leave the number with a small number of colleagues to call you only if absolutely necessary.

6. Prepare for your return. Plan before you get back what you are going to do on your return to work. Don’t try to eat the elephant in one sitting. It may look daunting but remember that most of those 700 emails can wait.

7. Listen to your partner. If somebody else is telling you you’re working too much on holiday, the chances are that it’s true. If both of you are at it, listen to the sound the kids are making outside in the pool and the still small voice of calm in your head telling you to leave the laptop alone and dive in with them.