The best part of a vacation is coming back to work. True of false?

TRUE – when you like (or love, depends on your general preferred passion levels) what you do and you enjoy the environment you do it in.

FALSE – when you are more likely to call in sick on your first day back at work and it just feels very very draining to even think about going back to work.

I’ve been in situations where it has been both true and false. TODAY, it was definitely true! Having had two volunteering/travelling sabbaticals, I know that mentally nor financially I cannot just vacay all the time. My mind needs challenging, and my bank account needs deposits before I can plan a new vacay. That’s my reality.

What makes gong back to work a positive experience?

I went back to work after 3,5 weeks of holidays today. And I was very happy to do so! I had a chat with a friend last week who thought I was nuts and who was telling me how she hates the idea of going back to work today. This made me start to think what makes going back to work such a positive experience to me this time?

I have also been very much team ‘False’ during my career. I remember forced annual leaves where my phone would ring first thing in the morning and I constantly kept replying to urgent work emails. Vacations during which my boss would not want to talk to my deputy and called me several times a day – it felt like I never went on vacay at all! I have also gone back to work when I within an hour of being back wished that I had checked in during my vacay, because what was waiting me was a massive workload and too many urgent crises to deal with. Exhausting to say the least.

I have also, more in the recent years I have to add, had vacations that were relaxing, involved only a weekly catch-up – if even that – and no work emails. Needless to say, I come back fresher and more relaxed but also I come back as a nicer person. Relaxing suits me, I am much better problem solver when I have rested properly. I know this now, in my 20s I didn’t.  But, even in the situations with disrupted, non- holidays, I still jotted back to the office with new ideas and at least better problem-solving abilities. I maybe wasn’t jumping with the joy of returning to my team, but I felt better. Back then, sometimes the change of scenery was enough.

I really enjoy what I do at the moment

After analysing the different approaches my friend and I had to returning to work this year, I realised that quite naturally the biggest difference was that I really enjoy what I do at the moment. I am currently working on a long-term gig with a company going through major changes. A competitor acquisition, culture re-configuration and aligning compensation and benefits processes for two companies with very different initial set-ups is challenging but very rewarding. So one of the reasons why I was looking forward to going back to work was that I had challenging projects waiting for me that I find meaningful. My friend on the other hand was returning to a messy work set-up with unclear responsibilities, something that has been going on for over a year. She is exhausted from the continuous ambiguity and is also more of the type that seeks clear boundaries and instructions.

My six dogmas for successful vacations

Working as a self-employed consultant the one absolute, undoubted benefit is that I get to choose the projects and the companies that I work with. This freedom is something that I really value, but it does not necessarily guarantee that I look forward to going back to work after holidays. What I have learned, the things that make coming back from holidays easier I listed below. These are, undoubtedly my best practices for ensuring a positive return to work after a successful vacations:

1. Planning. I take time off when it is not only good for me but for the company. If I am working as a HR consultant I find out when the leaders I assist are on holidays. And I do this early on.
2. Plan more. I manage my time not only before the holidays, but all the time, all year around. This is something I have learned with more experience in project management – planning the entire project so that you plan in vacation time ensures that not just the people involved, but the project itself stays on time.
3. Deliver the promises. I ensure that I finish the projects that need to be finished and others rely on before my hols. I deliver what I have promised to deliver before I switch on that out of office response.
4. Delegate and give responsibility. I ask help and empower others to take the lead while I am away. I never do this last minute, I plan it ahead and ensure that whoever is helping me knows exactly what and how to do. Sometimes training something might take weeks.
5. Check-in if when needed. Long vacay combined with large team or critical projects on-going?  I schedule a call (or call times if absolutely necessary) well in advance before going on vacay and set an agenda. So I check in, ensure that I help to remove bottles necks if needed and assist as needed. This time, I had a check up with the critical project team members who were not on holiday half way through my vacation. It only took an hour but gave me confidence that things were moving and an opportunity for the team to ask and clarify without having to feel guilty about bothering me on vacay.
6. Then – plan as little as possible. To balance all the planning at work, I do very little planning for my vacay, some yes, but then leave it open. Having big to do lists or vacation goals does not suite me! I explore, laze about and then back in 3 countries into day or end up reading 7 books in 2 weeks. You know, whatever I feel like. But what I do is I enjoy the down time.

Vacations are team effort

The above checklist works for me. Do you know what works for you? A close colleague always goes on holidays mid-week and returns to work  mid-week – she says that it makes the vacation time seem more and she is not so exhausted after the first week back to work as it has not been a full week.  So whatever works for you – as long as it works for the company as well and the team around you. Getting the best out of a vacation time is also very much a team effort. Effective, well-functioning teams have each other’s backs and are able to catch the ball while the others holiday. Want to build a company culture that enforces wellbeing? Ensure that your teams’ function well together, have effective, regular communication and are thus able to back each other’s up when it is time for holidays.

The biggest reason why coming back from vacation to me today was a joy? The team. In my current gig, the HR team I work with is an absolute gem. It is diverse and it is talented, and it is dedicated. I so looked forward to catching up with the team this morning.

Until the next vacay, enjoy work,

😊 Pirki