What You Should Do at Work Before Going on Vacation

 

Vacations are great, but in order to maximize your enjoyment you must properly prepare to leave the office behind. Here’s what you should do at work before going on vacation.

Image of a sunny place to vacation away from work by a pool

Of course everybody loves going on vacation, but it can actually prove to be a little more stressful than we’d like once you consider all the things you need to do before leaving work behind. So in order to max your relax on vacation you should properly prepare for your absence by doing the following…

Check in with key customers

It’s important to let new customers, important clients, and any other relevant vendors know that you’re going to be away for a period of time. You don’t want them to think you’re ignoring them while you’re gone, so just a quick note to keep them in the loop will suffice, and consider including an alternate contact for them to reach out to within your organization should anything come up while you’re on vacation.

Notify your employees/boss/co-workers

You don’t want anyone to come looking for you for help on a project only to find out that you won’t be back for another week. Give all the appropriate people (no need to go around telling everyone about the amazing vacation you have planned) at your company a heads up on when you’ll be gone so that if they need anything from you they can reach out before you leave or arrange things so it can wait until you return.

Schedule your time before and after your vacation accordingly

Keep in mind that it’s nearly impossible to get everything done at work before you leave. Set yourself up to give it a good shot, but then be prepared to walk away when the time comes. The more you can accomplish before your departure, (and perhaps even automate to happen while you’re away), the more you’ll be able to enjoy your vacation. And don’t forget to have some time set aside when you return to catch up rather than coming back to the office and just getting swamped.

Record a temporary voicemail greeting and set an auto-reply for your email

You don’t want people wondering why you haven’t returned their call or responded to their email. This is just a common courtesy.

Set some rules of engagement

Every once in a while there is a work emergency while you’re on vacation. However, what your co-workers or employees classify as an emergency may differ from your interpretation. You don’t want to get interrupted for something that could have waited and you don’t want to go without notification on something that actually needs your attention. So make sure you set out some ground rules on exactly what warrants a call or email that may disrupt your vacation.

Make arrangements with your answering service

Since your answering service is an extension of your business, it’s crucial to keep them on the same page. Let them know when you’re leaving, when you’ll return, and any special instructions they should follow while you’re gone. Should they answer the phones during any additional times? Will they be sending the messages to someone else? Go ahead and call them up, have a quick conversation about your plans, and they will make sure your phones are properly handled while you’re away so you have one less thing to worry about.

Trust your team

In the end, you’re going to be out of the picture for a short period of time and the amount of enjoyment you’ll get from your vacation will depend on how much you can trust the people left in the office to take care of business. It would take a truly exceptional group of screw ups to destroy the company in a matter of a week or two, so you probably don’t need to worry about that. As long as you’ve made sure everyone knows what to do while you’re away then you’ll return to a team that has held down the fort just fine and perhaps even made some significant progress. Just trust them and enjoy your time away.

There you have it. Now you know what you should do at work before going on vacation. Check off these items and you’ll set yourself up to have an awesome vacation while things at the office hum along smoothly in your absence. Need any help choosing where to go? Here’s 25 of the world’s best places to visit. Bon voyage!

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