To think when I am on annual leave my colleague should be doing my work

[Jenasaurus]

Just that really. I have returned from annual leave to find all the work has been waiting for me, emails unanswered despite an out of office on requesting the email my colleague or Manager. We share our role and when he is away I always respond to emails and cover his work as well as my own. This isnt work that should be left or can have penalties and implications.

I have been up until now resolving all the issues just so I can have a more normal day tomorrow, when I log on again at 8am.

I think I need to raise this with my Manager but I noted some of the emails are from her, and really she should know as I am away that my colleague should be dealing with them.

This happens all the time, and I am starting to dread taking leave as it just means double the work when I return.

How do others cope, is this the same for everyone or am I just unlucky

I've worked in a very similar role. Your workplace appears to have a poor way if working. One person should be managing the inbox and directing the team in how to deal with issues. There needs to prioritising of tasks.

You should not have sat up until 4am to clear backlog. You should have cleared the backlog during your normal hours. If queries were raised why you had such a back log you could explain. Your manager will then decide whether they want your colleague to actually cover when you are away or whether you work over a period to catch up on return.

However they will not see an issue now because you have voluntarily caught it up in your own time. If you truly have caught it up already it wouldn't have taken long to do so within your working hours.

One of my old colleagues use to put an out of office on that said something like “I will be out of the office between the dates of x and x. During this time please email xxxx who will deal with all requests. I will delete all emails received during this time on my return. If anything is urgent email xxxx, if anything needs my response please resend when I return”

@2155User

I think the main issue here is you think it’s in any way acceptable to sit up late during your AL to catch up on work.

This is definitely a significant part of the problem.

I took a month of annual leave once overlapping Christmas, and felt no compunction whatsoever to "get ahead" so I could "start with a clear list".

The list is the list. I'd work harder through the week after a bit of a warm up, sure. But I wouldn't think I had any responsibility to pre-empt that. And like OPs manager, I'm always having to stress to my staff the importance of logging out and fully clocking off for AL.

OP are you absolutely sure the emails were not dealt with? If someone emailed you and got your out of office they could have contacted your colleague but the email would still be in your inbox - it wouldn’t be deleted

I also wouldn’t be surprised to get emails from my manager while I’m off but they wouldn’t expect a response on day 1 back as they would know I’m just catching up

This sounds familiar. Nobody does my work when I am on holiday. I was off last week and spent until 8pm yesterday just dealing with emails.

Going on holiday always means clearing as much "space" as possible in advance to reduce the backlog when I return. Being off sick is similar, work just backs up until you return.

Agreewith @Womencanlift. Surely urgent issues will have been referred to your colleague and possibly dealt with. Noone expects you to catch up a week or more's work in a day. Why would you work so late trying to do so? That is on you rather than managing your workload over the space of a few days and liaising with your colleague to see what has already been sorted or was a non issue. I used to be off for several weeks and come back to a full inbox but relatively little really needed much time investment to resolve.

Genuine question. If you try and deal with them before you go back, how do you know they haven't been done already? I'm assuming there is some way to check. But if not then you could be duplicating work. Also by doing them all before you are not communicating the issue with your colleague at all. If you sit down in the office and say "gosh, I have 4 million emails" then people know there is a problem.

They can't be expected to do all of your work for you, if one person could do the work of two people then one of you would be redundant. All that they can be expected to do is deal with anything that can't wait until you come back.

I don't think I have ever had a a job where someone else does my work while I am away.
Takes weeks of pre planning and mountains of stuff to deal with when I get back.

Even more so now that I am self employed- even when I am holiday abroad I have to check and often respond to emails and some bits of admin.

@streamlinedcaverns

They can't be expected to do all of your work for you, if one person could do the work of two people then one of you would be redundant. All that they can be expected to do is deal with anything that can't wait until you come back.

Exactly. If one person could cope with both workloads, then only one person is needed. You should just work your normal hours, on returning from holidays. Otherwise, this will continue to happen.

are you sure they havent emailed you, got your out of office and then emailed someone else?

No I don’t think your colleague should be picking up your work. That would be impossible. When you are a person down you change priorities. He should be reviewing the generic inbox and dealing with urgent matters for the team, not his own priorities. When you return you should then both work together to clear the backlog. By the sounds of it control of the inbox is all over the place if you are getting direct emails.

From what you have said you have a problem with work boundaries. Your manager has been trying to address that with you. He/ She may well have issues with your colleague but that is another matter. By the sounds of it she is dealing with two people who struggle with direction and boundaries.

You need to pause and think about your response to this situation. So far it has been to do what you have been explicitly asked not to do.

OP, I need to say that in my experience workplace martyrs are very disruptive to team work and usually undermining to agreed processes. I personally screen people like this out at interviews because they are more trouble than they are worth. The feedback from your manager indicates she is trying to address this tendency in you.

Yes to using the department email box. No to working overtime to clear the backlog.

And take the opportunity to clarify with your manager what the cover arrangements are during annual leave. If you're not supposed to deal with double workload, stop doing it for your colleague.

OP, I need to say that in my experience workplace martyrs are very disruptive to team work and usually undermining to agreed processes

Have to agree with you there. Just because someone is happy to (needlessly) work ridiculous hours it doesn't mean we all are.

I think you need an OOO that says “If your query is or could become urgent, please contact [colleague’s name], otherwise I will respond after my return on X date”

I don’t think him covering absolutely everything is sensible, nor is it sensible for urgent things to get ignored until you get back. This is the middle way, urgent stuff gets covered, non urgent stuff waits.

I also think you need to agree this with your manager - ie that anything urgent gets sent to your colleague and he deals with it - and copy your colleague in.

Yes the emails will still sit in your inbox. But that person may have indeed followed the instruction to message someone else and for it to have already been dealt with.

Aww, she shouldn’t be up until 4am doing the work. Sod that, I’m not surprised your manager picked up on you burning out. What does your manger do? They should be coordinating things when you’re off. Or, could your emails divert to your colleague/manager to sort?

I think the main issue here is you think it’s in any way acceptable to sit up late during your AL to catch up on work.

I agree with this. But I also understand the desire to deal with it, especially with the sort of urgent and important work you describe.

You need to talk to your boss. Highlight things like the amount of work/number of emails undealt with, and the comment where your colleague asked the emailer to wait for your return.
But don't make it personal; make clear that your concern is urgent things going undealt with, and the possible consequences, and ask for clarity on how the work of the role is split and how it's to be dealt with when one of you is away.

Do you get some emails that are for your eyes only? If not, you could set up an auto-forward to bounce all incoming emails to the departmental inbox while you're away. Otherwise, log on every other day while you're on AL just to forward and delete! Then it can't be left for your return.

I can't do my own job and another person's job and I don't expect anyone to their job and mine on top. If it were that simple, at least one of us would be surplus to requirements and out of a job entirely.

I do expect certain things to be covered when I am on leave, and to cover certain things when others are on leave, but we specify and plan beforehand so we all now what will be picked up and dealt with immediately and what will be waiting for someone's return.

I recently had a week off and came back to an unbelievable amount of work so I feel your pain. Took me a full week to catch back up.

It's depends on the job and how much is your work v the teams work. Also depends on how priorities have been managed while you're away, bearing in mind that your colleague still has his/her own work to do.

I've always had my own work to catch up on when I've come back from leave, but if I couldn't catch up in a day I'd leave stuff for the next day. I wouldn't do crazy hours to get it finished. Presumably the people who emailed you would have seen your out of office, so they're not expecting an immediate answer. If they wanted one, they could have contacted your colleagues.

I’m currently on leave. My OOO says when i will return and for all compliance matters to be forwarded to the departmental mailbox, and that I will not be forwarding them.

I will sift junk and delete whilst away, and will direct colleagues to an answer if i know where it is

Haha. I knew it was Estates/Facilities even before you mentioned it. I have been there so many times. A lot of it was down to my manager not really managing the team properly so certain people took the mick quite a bit. I completely get that there are things that others need to pick up asap if you're gone, and I would too recommend reminding all staff to email the departmental inbox if they want anything done. I would discuss it with the manager too and let them know that it stresses you out. The thing with facilities is that a lot of it is really reactive, and in all the companies I worked for it was kind of subtly admired if you were seen to be working all hours/responding to emails from annual leave/always being available should anything happen. But at the same time everyone was saying how annual leave is sacred and that you shouldn't check emails when you're off. It's a bit of a paradox really.

I also job shared with someone who did not pick up any work in my absence, or when I was there for that matter, as she was too busy building her online "side hustle". I was so overworked and brought it up with my boss so many times and he didn't do anything about it. In the end I left. 🤷

I hope you get it sorted OP. It's nice to be important and have people contact you because they know you get the job done, but if it means others are taking the mick you may have to step back a bit.