How do you combine vacation with email?

The meaning of ‘vacation’ is very personal: where some like to raft down a high mountain, others seek peace and quiet, or just a holiday destination with children’s entertainment. So it is with the combination of work and vacation- because whether you are an employee or an independent professional, you will have to make choices about work and holiday.

The considerations you make in it are very similar to the considerations of an average Sunday evening: do I open my mailbox then, or not?

The answer is always: do whatever gives you peace of mind. How you achieve that peace of mind is up to you.

There are several choices to make. For starters:

Do you turn on an out-of-office reply or not – and what does it say?

For independent professionals who do not have a back up colleague during vacation time, that may be a very different answer than for those who have a department full of substitutes.

Bear in mind that you don’t have to write ‘I’m not here, I’ll be back then-and-then’. You can also opt for an intermediate form, indicating that you might respond later than usual during holidays. Possibly add your phone number, for things that cannot wait.
If necessary, you can leave it blank as to when you will be back; perhaps it is a good idea to keep your work/home address safe.

If you do have colleagues who can deal with your e-mails, make it clear to the recipient of your out-of-office reply where he or she can go for what. That is all that is important. Think from the recipient’s point of view and phrase your text accordingly. Not: ‘John does invoices, reminders and contracts’ but: ‘For invoices, reminders and contracts you can turn to John’.

For both groups goes:

• That it is smart to engage your out-of-office reply a day or two before you leave, so that you have a buffer and people are not surprised by your departure
• Keep it businesslike anyway and don’t be too funny with texts in the genre ‘If you are reading this, I am enjoying a well-deserved Tequila on a Mexican beach’.

And then…

How often do you check your mail while on vacation?

You can choose not to do so until you are actually back home, or even only on your real first working day after your vacation. No doubt you’ll have a lot to deal with by then, though you can be smart about it by selecting by sender. This usually allows you to delete mails in bulk.

‘Group by discussion’ or ‘Display as conversation’ (found in Outlook under the View tab) can also help you deal with mails that belong together as one, so you don’t fall behind.

The other extreme is to open your mailbox daily during your holiday and deal with mails. Whether this is smart depends on your position, the situation, your volume of mails, the cooperation of your fellow holidaymakers and the alternatives you (don’t) have. In any case, try to scan mails: what is really urgent and what can wait? An intermediate form is to scan your mailbox several times a week for urgent matters and separate them from things that can wait.

Make a standard reply for the latter category, which you keep copying. In it you mention that you are on vacation and that you will get back to it on date X. (Schedule that in your diary, or keep it more global: ‘from week X I will respond’).

Don’t forget…

Well before you leave, make sure you have all the information and technology you need to remotely access and use your mailbox. It’s not very relaxing if you only discover at your Italian campsite that you should have requested a token for this or that your webmail password has expired.

Have a great vacation!

PS This article is also available in a Dutch version

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Are you, or your team, still struggling with e-mail as a communications tool and do you want to use it effectively? Then please consider a workshop or training Master of your Inbox (Baas in eigen inbox).

General information in Dutch may be found here. Please contact me for a tailormade workshop or training where both materials and instructions are in English.

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