Anyone else’s colleagues do this when you’re going on annual leave?!?

[Netball01]

I’m going on a 2 week holiday next week - it’s been booked for ages & my team have known about it for months.

I’m basically admin support for my team but there’s no one to cover me when I’m not here & the work I do is pretty essential to our client delivery. I’ve given them all plenty of notice / reminders / set deadlines etc to make sure I got everything done before holiday.

So of course, they’ve all ignored all my deadlines & left everything to the last minute & now I’m being inundated with emails about submitting their work to me Friday lunchtime so I can get it done before my holiday (!!!!)

I’ve also had emails about the urgent work I can pick up on my first day back from holiday but needs to be turned round asap.

Everytime I go on holiday this happens & it just ends up being so stressful trying to get it all done as it’s pretty much impossible for me to get it done that quickly.

I also really hate them lining work up for me on my first day back before I’ve even gone away as it just hangs like a cloud over my last few days when I’m meant to be relaxing.

AIBU to think this really poor from my team?? Honestly just want to tell them all to F off !

BTW I’ve already started pushing back but it’s falling on deaf ears so far.

I wouldn’t even rush to get stuff done. Does it absolutely have to be done by you or can they do it themselves while you are away. Maybe spend some time doing some how to guides that you can send out to them before you go so you don’t have that backlog.

also tell them that you will not be prioritising work on return but catching up with emails

speak to your boss that is it causing you stress. If you died tomorrow they would cope. Also point out to boss that them being lazy means the client is also waiting and could take their business elsewhere

I always put my Out Of Office on well before I finish. This stops the office politicking 4.55PM emails people do:

Annoying Colleague - I sent X to Gnome before her holiday, I dont know why it didnt get done. I'll make sure she deals with it the second she gets back.

Annoying Colleague polishes their halo thinking they have bought themselves 2 weeks of grace at my expense.

Now they get a ping back from the morning I am going away.

My favourite thing if I suspect them of playing games is to actually do X and get it sent straight back. No two weeks of grace for them!

So you gotta be strong and stick to it. They want singing done in Friday before you leave, you reply with the original info email where you first told them.

as for work that MUST be done Day one back. Just don’t do it. Take a day or two sick, ease back in after that.

they will learn. But you must stay consistent. Like toddlers.

Not colleagues but customers. I have OOO on directing them to other people, email and telephone. There are maybe 12 of us doing the exact same job so they don't need to speak to me directly

I will always come back to at least one angry email about why I haven't replied
Off for 2 weeks and I've logged in twice for 15 mins mostly because I can't face coming back to hundreds of emails on my day back and no time to do them

As others have said, auto reply reminding them of the deadline you set, but with one extra detail:

”Please note, any requests sent after this date will be processed after my return. If your request is urgent, please send directly to [my manager], who will be managing this workflow in my absence.”

It is management’s call not to cover you, and it is their responsibility to ensure the work gets done. Inconvenience them. While it might not be your direct LM who made that decision, they should still be the one to take responsibility for your work while you’re away if nobody else has been tasked with it.

You should be returning to work with a view of doing a day's work, so that bit is unreasonable.

I don't think it is unreasonable.

Yes - you come back to work with a view of doing a day's wrk, but NOT with a view of doing two weeks overdue work in one day before you even start to deal with that day's workload! And then doubtless having people contacting you to get theirs done quickly, and having X reasons why they should get priority.

It would put a black cloud over anybody's holiday.

Where is the manager....no company should ever have one person doing something. I had shingles once and from my 'bed' I was dictating down the phone how to run software and print reports etc. This was things going to the top end of Government.

When I returned others were trained up at my request. Every team since then I have been in charge of ALL STAFF are trained up (not everyone on everythiing...Data Protection Act etc). I'm a firm believer in this.

I was in a bingo hall a few weeks ago. Some staff off, no one knew how to open one of the defective fruit machines. They turned it and all the other machines off in error. It did not go down well.

See your boss....this nonsense has to end.

Completely understand where you are coming from. I work in a really stressful job and thinking about what’s waiting for me when I return can really impact the last few days of a holiday for me.
Doing what you can before you finish, including possibly one or two of the things marked as urgent on return will at least get you ahead of the game on your return, and me personally I would probably do a bit extra/ work a bit longer at this end to minimise stress at the other end if you know what I mean. But that’s me. You absolutely don’t have to and it’s fine to remind the staff that deadlines were clear and seek manager support for this. Also agree with potentially advising people of things they could do themselves if it can’t wait till you return.
Enjoy your holiday!

There should always be cover for any employee who is on leave. No one is indispensable and it's totally unfair for work to be piled up just before and after your holiday leave. Perhaps this has gone on for so long that it's become the norm. It needs to change. Get support from your manager to arrange a system where your duties are delegated to others whilst you are away

I would do as others have suggested and set a deadline for work to be submitted to you well before the holiday. By past experience you'll probably get around twice as much submitted to you than you have time for, and this is when you go to your manager and tell (not ask) them to prioritise your work for before you go.

Same when you get back - you will have all the left overs from the original deadline, plus the work submitted the rest of that week, plus the stuff that's come in demanding prioritising on your return. I know full well (again from experience) that everybody will insist that their work is the most urgent and chances are some will try to pull rank for being first. You don't really have the authority to decide which work is more urgent, or whether you need to prioritise by grade etc, that is your boss's job as your manager!

This way your boss might, just might understand the issues you face every time you are out for more than a day. As things stand there doesn't seem to be any pressure on them to arrange cover or help you manage this workload, but if it impacts on them they are more likely to do something about it. And even if they don't, at least they will be the ones people are unhappy with as you can just say "see boss, they're the one who said to do someone else's work first".

We have a lovely admin lady in our work, and if you miss a deadline she replies wirh a polite emai lsaying sorry the deadline was this and this date as per email from this and this date, the work will be completed upon her return or wherever.

Sounds like you need a two person admin staff who don’t take hols at same time.

I’d just keep replying to their emails with a timeline and copy them all in.

Hi Team

I’m back on Monday Xth June. I have the following projects waiting for me…

Emma’s financial report
Sarah’s monthly summary
Ben’s blah blah
Paul’s so and so
Etc etc

Just to manage expectations, these will be completed throughout the week commencing Xth June, they won’t all be done by close of play Monday.

I will do them in the order that the account manager asked for them.

Thanks
Xxxx

Not getting cover for your holiday and having you come back to a mountain of emails, tasks to be completed urgently etc. on your return can be grounds for you hitting them with a constructive dismissal claim. You need to speak to your manager and outline the process you have put in place to have work completed in advance of your leave and then highlight all the late requests. They need to then pick this up with the rest of the team.

@Moveoverdarlin This

One of the most irritating things about this situation is that even the good advice to assess the remaining workload, prioritize it, inform the initiators of the items that won't get done, discuss with manager, etc etc etc is itself more work. I'd still say do it, to set boundaries for the future so this doesn't happen EVERY time the admin staff have the temerity to take a scheduled (and contracted, and legally required) break; but it's easy to see how even managing the unreasonable last minute requests is stressful, almost as much trouble as just doing the damned things. But there are still only 24 hours in a day and if OP stayed until midnight something would still have to give (along with her sanity).

Too many people assume that because admin roles tend to be paid less they are not extremely valuable, and underestimate how much time, effort and expertise it actually takes - not to mention the consequences if it's not done correctly (or at all). Or to put it another way: be nice to your support staff because they know where the bodies are buried!

You shouldn’t be worrying like this, your line manager is shit.

And let me guess, NHS. Where clinical admin leads do nothing leading.

This 👆

Ugh, it was like this in my last job. The weeks leading up to me going on holiday were really stressful trying to get stuff done. And those I did the admin for had no idea how complex the work they expected me to do could often be. I used to end up resenting my holiday, when I should be looking forward to it. Then when I was on holiday, I'd be thinking about work and wondering what was happening to certain cases and dreading what would be waiting for me when I got back. And all for a salary of considerably less than £30k a year. It was an absolute joke and one of the main reasons I left. I now have a job which is basically zero stress, easier, pays me more money and I literally never think about work once I've finished for the day and definitely not when I go on holiday. I stayed in my previous job for too long, through loyalty and really liking some of my colleagues. But I'm now so glad I left.

This is bad behaviour from your team and your manager.
You need to reinfocre you (comprehensive and excellent sounding) reminders by setting clear boundaries.
So the Friday lunchtime requests "please do speak to my manager. I'm currently at capacity until I go on leave but if she/he wishes to deprioritise anything I could take this on".
Monday morning when youve get back "I've received a number of requests and it's unlikely that I will clear the backlog in the coming days."

Where's your manager in all this? I would want to know and would be clamping down on this.

I would also set a deadline a day before your actual last day, and I always keep my out of office on for the first day I am back

It sounds like the OP doesn't have the luxury of being able to list other key contacts to go it in their absence in case of emergency.

I’m basically admin support for my team but there’s no one to cover me when I’m not here & the work I do is pretty essential to our client delivery.

the reality is your management need to decide that your essential work for client delivery needs to have continuity of cover. It's down to them to allocate cover in your 2 week absence, for emergency tasks only, and possibly you might have to reciprocate if the person covering takes leave for 2 weeks.

sounds like poor organisation and mixed messages over priorities and failing to organise cover, while still calling your work a priority,

Exactly

That’s crazy and stressful.

I instruct my team members NOT to give any work to admin mid-way through their last week before annual leave and I cover as much of their work as I can while they are off. They certainly don’t come back to any emails from the wider team.