How to enjoy my week off work

MikeL93

I am off work next week and this is the first time I will have had any time off work this year since Christmas, however the person in the office who I cover for when he is on holiday has booked time off for the week I am back off my holiday meaning I will be extremely busy as I will be doing the job of two people. 

I fully accept people can take holidays whenever however when I book time off work I make sure that I am not going off just as someone is coming back so that they are not overwhelmed on their first day and quite a few other people do this too. If this was a one time thing I could accept it but this person always seems to book their holidays for immediately after I get back. For example when I was on paternity leave last year in Summer, not only did they ring me on my second day of leave asking for time off in December when it could have waited until I got back, they booked a week off for my first day back in three weeks meaning I was crazy busy.

So my question is, how can I enjoy my week off next week without dreading going back to work the week after knowing it will immediately be crazy busy? I have always been one of those people who has struggled to switch off from work but I need to change my way of thinking somehow.

rach_anatasia

Book the week after they are back off and don't do any work the previous week?

All joking aside, this is something I find challenging. I do my best to remind myself that you cannot get everything done and that there's only so much you can do in your workday.

LeafGreen

Is there a manager who approves holiday requests?  If so maybe in future mention to them that you think that it would be a good idea to have some policy of not having people who do the same job away on consecutive weeks - bill it as a benefit to continuation of good service to the customer or something along those lines.

I too sometimes find it hard to switch off while on holiday / and other non-working time to the point where I have found myself checking work e-mails as part of my fairly regular habitual checks through my own e-mail, social media, news etc etc.  But on my latest week off I decided no more, turned my work phone off and resisted temptation to check it for anything... and it worked out great, I had a very relaxing time away barely even thinking about work.  I did have about 700 e-mails when I got back, but you can only plough through the backlog at a certain rate so again the trick is not worrying too much about that and just expecting it will take a few days to get back on top of things.

MikeL93

rach_anatasia said:

Book the week after they are back off and don't do any work the previous week?

All joking aside, this is something I find challenging. I do my best to remind myself that you cannot get everything done and that there's only so much you can do in your workday.

I think I just find it annoying more than anything that everyone else leaves at least a day before their holiday if someone is coming back off holiday to help ease them back into it but this person just doesn't want to be a team player.

MikeL93

LeafGreen said:

Is there a manager who approves holiday requests?  If so maybe in future mention to them that you think that it would be a good idea to have some policy of not having people who do the same job away on consecutive weeks - bill it as a benefit to continuation of good service to the customer or something along those lines.

I too sometimes find it hard to switch off while on holiday / and other non-working time to the point where I have found myself checking work e-mails as part of my fairly regular habitual checks through my own e-mail, social media, news etc etc.  But on my latest week off I decided no more, turned my work phone off and resisted temptation to check it for anything... and it worked out great, I had a very relaxing time away barely even thinking about work.  I did have about 700 e-mails when I got back, but you can only plough through the backlog at a certain rate so again the trick is not worrying too much about that and just expecting it will take a few days to get back on top of things.

There is a manager but the way it usually works is the person usually asks me if it's okay and if no one is already on holiday I clear it with the manager and approve it. However, on the day this person asked for time off I was in a meeting all morning so when I didn't respond to their email asking for the week off they went above me and went straight to the manager who approved it.

BridgetTheCat

Each of you should be doing a handover note before going on leave highlighting anything urgent or important that’s likely to come up. But other than that remember one person can’t do the work of 2 in the same timeframe.

MikeL93

BridgetTheCat said:

Each of you should be doing a handover note before going on leave highlighting anything urgent or important that’s likely to come up. But other than that remember one person can’t do the work of 2 in the same timeframe.

Handovers are sent whenever anyone is taking time off.

I just really need to find a way to switch off and enjoy my week off instead of worrying about the mountain of work I'll have when I'm back.

born_again

Just forget about work & enjoy your holiday. When you get back, you can only do what you can. If anyone complains. Just remind them you are on your own.

TELLIT01

Don't even think about work while on holiday.  If anybody tries calling you, don't answer.  Once you get back to work, work as you normally would.  If you are able to do the work of two people during normal working hours it would suggest that you aren't particularly busy on a day to day basis.  If you can't cope with the additional workload inform your manager.  It is their responsibility so sort that problem out, not yours.

Savvy_Sue

Presumably you have an out of office message on your emails. 

I have seen the message "I'm on leave until (date). All emails which arrive in my absence will be deleted before reading."

Couldn't do it myself, but maybe it's one of the perks of seniority. 

penners324

You work to live not the other way round. Discovered this to my cost at my last job. Spent a few hours working over Xmas, when the office was closed, to ensure early January was straightforward for me.

Got made redundant at 9.01am on 2nd January. So wish I hadn't bothered now.