Set and Hold Boundaries While on Vacation
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Setting boundaries with your employer about vacation time helps prevent work responsibilities from encroaching on your personal time and ensures that you return to work refreshed and more productive.
But the ability to hold boundaries to create that peace of mind while away from the office can be easier said than done.
Clear communication and managing expectations with your employer to ensure you can truly disconnect and rejuvenate are two key components. This article will explore several strategies for maintaining boundaries as well as case studies to illustrate the methods in action.
Ready? When setting vacation and out-of-office boundaries, practice the following:
Clear Communication Before Vacation:
Importance: Clearly communicating your vacation plans well in advance helps manage your employer's expectations and prepares your team for your absence.
How to Implement: Inform your boss and your team about your vacation as soon as possible. Include the dates you will be away and ensure everyone is aware that you will not be available during this period.
Set Expectations About Availability:
Importance: It’s important to establish whether you will be completely offline or if there will be limited times when you might be reachable.
How to Implement: Be explicit about your availability. If you choose to be completely unreachable, communicate this clearly. If you are open to emergency contact only, define what constitutes an emergency.
Automate What You Can:
Importance: Automating regular tasks ensures continuity and can prevent requests for intervention.
How to Implement: Use tools and systems to schedule reports, emails, or other routine communications. Ensure all automated systems are tested before you leave.
Reaffirm Boundaries If Contacted:
Importance: Despite preparations, you might still be contacted. How you respond can reinforce or weaken the boundaries you've set.
How to Implement: If contacted, gently remind your colleague or supervisor of your agreed availability. Offer to address the issue upon your return if it's not urgent.
Like we mentioned, saying is often easier than doing. Here are a few sample case studies for how to actually put these strategies into practice during your vacation this summer.
Case Study 1: The Planner
Scenario: Jessica informed her boss six weeks in advance about her two-week trip to Europe. She made it clear she would not be available as she would be traveling to areas with limited connectivity.
Strategy: She prepared a detailed document and assigned backup personnel for each of her responsibilities. She also set an out-of-office email that directed coworkers to the appropriate contacts. She met with each person who would be providing coverage and shared her expectations for what success would look like as well as scheduled check-in points to ensure they felt prepared ahead of time and upon her return.
Case Study 2: The Honest Conversation
Scenario: Bob, a part-time IT consultant, planned a one-week vacation but his client was used to contacting him at all hours.
Strategy: Before leaving, Bob clarified the terms of his availability, stating he would check emails only once per day in the evening. He provided contact information for a support resource in his absence if needed, even though he knew his client had a more personal connection to him and would find it difficult to solicit help from another consultant. Finally, he made sure to have a direct and honest conversation with his client to create a shared understanding of expectations and solicit his client’s agreement and commitment to following their communication plan.
Case Study 3: The Emergency Contact
Scenario: Alex was the only person knowledgeable about a critical phase of a project when they took their vacation.
Strategy: They set a strict boundary that they could be contacted only in case of a ‘genuine emergency’ related to the project. In the past, Alex was burned by not being aligned with their team on what constituted a ‘genuine emergency', so this time around they defined what that meant at this phase in the project and discussed it with their team and boss. Everyone agreed and felt on the same page about when and how they should reach out to Alex if a situation like that came up.
Case Study 4: The Unexpected Interruption
Scenario: RaShauna, a senior project manager, had planned a week-long vacation in a secluded mountain cabin to disconnect and recharge. Before leaving, she informed her team and her manager that she would be completely off-grid, with no cell service or internet access expected at her location. She designated her assistant project manager, Tom, as her point of contact for any urgent issues and conducted a thorough hand-off of responsibilities and action items.
Strategy: Despite her clear communication, Karen received several texts and even a voicemail from a team member about a non-urgent client query, which they deemed an emergency because the customer was persistent. Even when planning is in place, interruptions can happen. In this case, here’s how Karen handled the boundary violation during and after her vacation:
Reaffirm Boundaries: Upon returning to an area with cell service, Karen noticed the messages. Before responding, she assessed whether the issue was a genuine emergency based on the criteria she had set before her departure.
Educational Response: Karen responded via a text message, reiterating her unavailability and reminding the team member of the agreed protocol for handling such situations. She specifically pointed out that the issue could have been addressed by Tom or postponed until her return.
Post-Vacation Follow-up: When Karen returned to work, she scheduled a meeting with the team to review the incident. During the meeting, she clarified what constitutes an emergency and stressed the importance of respecting the set boundaries. She also used this opportunity to solicit feedback from the team on how they could improve handling similar situations in the future.
Implementing Improvements: To prevent future occurrences, Karen implemented a more structured escalation process and provided additional training to her team on decision-making in her absence. This included scenario-based training to better equip the team with the skills needed to determine the urgency of issues.
Setting and maintaining clear boundaries with your team and employer during a vacation requires upfront communication, planning, and sometimes reinforcement.
By following these strategies and learning from situational examples, you have a better chance at finding peace of mind during vacation season and returning to work recharged, without the stress of having been "on-call" during your scheduled downtime.