Working on vacation

Put down your phone and enjoy your holiday. But put your autoreply email to work for max impact.

Work life balance is everything. When the team takes vacation or paid time off (PTO) it's important to leave work behind and focus on that time with family and friends.

But that doesn't mean you can't communicate with colleagues whilst on holiday. We all set auto responders on our email and you probably get one every single day. Bet they go something like this:

Hi, thanks for your email, I'm out of the office, please contact so and so and I'll reply soon.

Cool, it helps the sender understand you're out, but this reply could literally have been anything you want. What if you used this opportunity to tell a story?

Intro: What are you up to?

Start with where you are and what you are doing. It's probably personable and interesting. For example:

Hi there, my parents are visiting from out of town and we are off to do tourist stuff in San Francisco.

Instantly the sender can empathise with why you're not in the office.

Help: The sender needs answers

Let the sender know who to redirect their query to or provide additional suggestions (typically your peers) or call out specific folks, especially if you manage them.

Please reach out to ABC from the design team or speak with XYZ regarding The Project.

Shoutouts: Something/one else you want to highlight

Could be a team accomplishment, links to work in progress or learnings from a test or study and even call attention to something in the office.

Our team has been hard at work on the new Q1 project. You can see our progress on the wall in the kitchen or check out this prototype or documentation online.

In closing

Switching off is really important. Provided their team knows where they are and can contact them during work hours then I don't care where they work from.

Encourage your team not to check email or slack outside hours. As a manager you can help this by not sending emails, commenting on work or lurking on slack at night or on weekends. Let your people be.

You can help this by not sending emails, commenting on work or lurking on slack at night or on weekends

A lot of ways to make an impact with something as simple as your autoreply message which takes a few minutes to craft but can impact many colleagues you work and interact with regularly who will get that personal reply.