When you take vacation, upon your return, what situation do you typically face?
Our reader poll today asks: When you take vacation, upon your return, what situation do you typically face?
- My colleagues have covered for me when I was gone and I only have a few pending tasks 21.59%
- Some work was covered but much of it is left for me to do 48.02%
- No one did anything for me and I returned to a mountain of work 30.39%
Cover me. 22% of you have colleagues who pick up the slack when you’re out on vacation and you come back to a nice clean desk. That’s a wonderful situation – just make sure you do the same for them when they take time off. For those of you who return to a big pile of work, ask yourself – did you ask colleagues to cover for you and did you give them the information they’d need to get the work done? Did you provide system access? Forwarding instructions on your out of office message? Did you ask them if they’d be willing and able to cover specific tasks while you were gone? Simply taking off for your trip and hoping someone will step up and take on your work is a recipe for disappointment. If you want them to handle your work while you’re gone, be explicit, give them the information and access they need, and get their agreement before packing your bags.
– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.
Good commentary, especially bullet 3, which is what I usually face. I like the suggestions too; the problem is when silo behavior is the norm in the workplace. I wish it wasn’t.