The summer travel season is in full swing, and you may soon be planning to set your own “out” message.
But in the U.S., with an overwork culture and zero national laws guaranteeing paid vacation time, it’s hard to take time off. The average American takes 9.5 days off each year, and when they do take it, most say they can’t stop working.
For Lene Vindenes, a 28-year-old social media manager living in Oslo, Norway, the temptation to check work news during the holidays is even difficult. Like many European workers, she is legally entitled to extensive paid time off.
Her company guarantees 25 days of paid vacation each year, and she is required to take three weeks of vacation during the June-August summer vacation. She once flew around Europe for four weeks.
She admits it’s “really hard” not to check email after get off work, and returning after a few weeks is “always overwhelming”.
Here are her four top tips on how to prepare for OOO.
1. Ask your customers what they need from you
Just like you let your boss and team know when you’re leaving, Wenderis says she typically sends emails to people she works closely with about her vacation plans. She started the process a month before her scheduled break.
“I usually start by notifying my clients that I’m going to be on leave and asking if they have any upcoming projects that I need to be aware of,” she says.
It’s helpful for her to understand the client’s priorities, then figure out what she can accomplish before she leaves, what other colleagues can do during her absence, and what can be done before she returns.
2. Prepare a colleague insurance plan
Wunderness said the thing that reassured her most before the break was knowing that “the company and my colleagues will have my back.”
She and her team have “very clear routines” Keep everything running smoothly when someone is away, and agree, “In Norway we do respect each other’s vacation time and don’t want to contact this person unless it’s an emergency.”
A week before the holiday, Wunderness will prepare handovers of what’s going on for colleagues, “so they’re fully informed and can easily engage if needed.”
3. Let your boss know where things are
Finally, when Wunderness is stepping down, she will give her boss an update on the project.
That way, he can offer any insight on how to prioritize the rest of her time before PTO, or can step in and help if needed.
Wunderness made sure to have a clear and realistic plan to get things done before she left. “It’s hard to go on vacation when you have unfinished projects, so for my own sake, I try to finish as much as I can so I can start my vacation with a clear conscience.”
4. Set out of office and turn off all notifications
Weeks of preparation paid off, Wunderness said: “It’s important that everyone around me – clients, colleagues, managers – is well informed. This minimizes the chances of them contacting me. ,”she says. “I also try to have a clear ‘out of office’ auto-reply, which makes it easy for my clients to know who they can contact while I’m away.”
She then turns off notifications on email, messaging, and other work-related apps.
In addition to the to-do list, it helps to work in an environment that encourages time off, Wunderness says.
“I’m also very aware that I’m not a brain surgeon,” she said. “I do marketing. Nobody dies.”
When the vacation is over, Vindenes asks colleagues to help her catch up on things she missed, and she keeps a prioritized to-do list by urgency so she can “feel more organized while scrolling through 500 emails, not So overwhelmed.”
The holiday mentality of Europeans
