Colleagues who cover for you while you're on annual leave

[Worriedaboutsmear]

If someone covers for you while you're on annual leave for 2 weeks, which also involves that person picking up things that could wait until you get back, but they want to help you out so that your first few days back aren't hijacked, would you thank them on your return?

Or are you of the view that if you're on hols, the work that you would ordinarily do during that time, isn't your responsibility, so why should you thank someone for doing it, it's the company that should be thankful to whoever picks it up.

I say thank you if things could have waited until my return and I know someone has done them, because it makes my inbox more manageable. If I have capacity I will do the same for others, especially if correspondence they have outstanding is older than my own work.

Course I would.

Yes and I would do the same for them if possible - that said, if I was very busy I may forget to say thank you. But I would try to at some point

I say thanks but that's it. Holiday cover is part and parcel of any job. It's not an I scratch your back situation at all - everyone takes time off eventually and so everyone needs cover

Everyday tasks that need to be done i dont thank because its part of their job to cover.

If i came in and they had cleared down my inbox; i would probably by them a car.

I can't see why anyone wouldn't say thanks. It's customary to say thanks to people doing their normal job anyway

You say thank you because that is what polite people do. You are thankful that they were there and that they actually did the work (they could have just rushed it and not really done it well enough to prevent you from falling behind).

I would say thank you and get them a little something (e.g. Biscuits) to show my appreciation. I'd feel like a proper shit not to acknowledge the additional effort and workload my leave had caused them.

Of course I'd say thank you!!! Especially if you've done extra stuff that could wait until they get back

I hope you're the coverer not the holiday person....

Of course I say thank you
When I'm away my deputy gets an extra payment per hour, but she's still very grateful that I'm back
So, I'm thanking her for filling in for me and she's thanking me for coming back :)

There must be a backstory here

Depends.

Was it really helpful or was it a bit annoying because this thing that could have waited is now half-done in not-the-way-I-would-do-it?

I can imagine a few situations where someone might think they were being helpful but actually ended up making things less easy for me, not more.

I think it depends on the nature of your job and how holiday cover actually works in your job, but in mine we always thank each other for picking each other's work up or finishing stuff off for each other while we're on leave. Generally speaking the other person is obliged to get those things done while someone's on leave, so they aren't actually doing you a special favour - they don't have a choice. But as we all appreciate that it does create extra workload, we always thank each other in my team.

I wouldn't actually get my knickers in a twist if someone didn't say thanks for whatever reason, but it's nice that they do.

Of course you should say thank you. Or they should.

So someone hasn't thanked OP and they're annoyed about it.

In my job we don't have our own work as such, just stuff that is assigned to us. Work will just be assigned around the team when I'm not there so it's pretty hard to thank anyone as I wouldn't know what work would have been mine had I been there. I do thank people if they deal with something that I had been working on before my holiday though.

So someone hasn't thanked OP and they're annoyed about it.

Yup.

A colleague of mine doesn't even listen to the answerphone or open the post when I'm off. Tbh she'd probably make a mess of it anyway.

Not that difficult to just say thank you is it? Or am I missing something?

Just say "thank you". No big deal really is it?

Or is there something else we need to know?

I'd say thank you.

Manners cost nothing.

If you don't, then the colleague probably won't go out of their way to help you again.

(I assume you are the colleague in this case who didn't get a thanks).

Yes definitely I would say thanks

Was it really helpful or was it a bit annoying because this thing that could have waited is now half-done in not-the-way-I-would-do-it?

This.

I work in a pair, and the work is "ours"', not specifically mine or my colleague's. But generally, if I start something, I would prefer to finish it myself than have my colleague try to "help" part way through. And if I pick up something because my colleague is sick, I don't need to be thanked for doing something that is, basically, my job.

Consider yourself lucky. Nobody picks up my work as nobody there is able to. I'm back tomorrow after almost two weeks off and I'm dreading it.

I always say thank you and buy her a box of chocolates