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.

Lol. I had one person ask me when I was going on leave. Seriously, this person did not need that information. It was na overreach, and I knew exactly what they were doing, judging by their past behaviour. They were marking it down in their calendar, so they could leave everything until the very last minute, dump it on me, and mark it as URGENT before I'm due to be away.

That's awful, and I'm pretty sure that illegal. There are definitions to annual leave and it's a legal entitlement. It does not involve being on-call 24hrs a day (unless they want to pay for that), and it definitely does not entail attending meetings that could bloody wait. They should not be making their staffing issues his problem, which they very much are.

If your husband feels unable to stand his ground, he needs to broadcast to everyone that he's going abroad (just use one of your old holiday destinations as the place, so it'll be easy for him to answer questions on it if they start digging).

I mean who knows, maybe it won't stop and they'll expect him to fly back!

I heard a ‘friend of a friend’ put an auto respond on that everything received would be deleted, unread, on return to work, if it was urgent some see them on the 25th of whatever😂would love to embody the brass testicles that go with this!

An organisation with an over reliance on one person to provide a key element of their function is taking a big risk. Who would pick up the work if you left or went off on long term sick? It takes time to recruit and train someone and so what happens to the work in the meantime. It is poor resource planning on behalf of the management not to have others that can be called on in the wider team to carry out your work. Could some of those people passing you work carry out some of the tasks themselves where necessary?

Admin support is the underpaid person who does just about everything you don't need a qualification for, but still has to understand how the business is run & do much of the hard work, who earns around a third of what the "important" qualified people earn.

Rather than a basic admin position you're actually doing a PA type role for a number of people who don't need a full time assistant, saving their highly paid time to do stuff like customer facing things & attending external meetings. Of course being "admin" rather than a PA means you get paid less in many cases, with the addition of having to work for a number of people who all seem to think you're sitting there just waiting for their really important work and forget you have others you need to service. Which also adds in the "fun" of having to tell people senior to you that you can't prioritise their work above everyone else's, and shouting at you won't mean you drop something that could be for the MD rather than a basic executive.

In theory it's actually a very good cost saving method, as you can move from having 10 people all on for example £100k a year, to 6 people earning that and 4 earning £25k thereby saving £300k. But it has to be done really well, which means the person's manager needs to be tough & on the ball (very rare).

What, not that phrase that's been quoted about 5 times already on this thread

it's quickly overtaking "cancel the cheque" and "talk to HR" - sorry I've been round here far too long!

It's not your problem that your company choose not to get cover for you. Nor is it your problem that other members of staff haven't submitted things in time for you to deal with them.

Let the managers know what's happened, and let them know that you'll be working normal length days at your normal intensity when you get back.

It's hardly a holiday if you have to fit in the work you'd have done anyway.

If I were you, there is a level of communication that you can send around without requiring your team leader/line manager's approval where you can reply to the requests asking for stuff to be done before you go on your well deserved leave.

You could respond with an email saying "As previously advised by email on A date, I will be on leave from X time on Friday Y date. I'm endeavouring to complete as much work as I can before I leave for my holiday but unfortunately, due to time constraints, and due to circumstances out of my control, some work will have to be held over until I return. In the meantime, work will be prioritised on a business urgency basis only and completed as soon as possible. If your query is not business urgent, I will schedule it for completion on my return. Your help and understanding is appreciated in this matter"
or something along those lines.

You have to CYA here and if your manager doesn't arrange cover for you, you can most certainly do what you can to cover yourself and in fact you really should. At least that's my take on the situation.

Arrange a meeting with management.

You have the patience of a saint.

First,as people have said talk to your manager - this is not acceptable and you’re being asked to squeeze your time to make up for other’s inefficiency.

secpndly work with manager to set service level agreement with you teams, and define some sort of capacity measure for your available time. Then assessmwork as it comes in, or as they request before it comes in ideally, and plan your capacity vs that demand. If the demand exceeds your capacity tell the people involved, tell them to decide the relative pririrites. If that doesn’t work tell your boss that they need to prioritse

include holidays in your capacity plan including half day down time before leaving (to wrap up, complete your own admin and Finnish over run tasks) . Plan downtime for at least half a day on first day back for same thing.

do NOT accept work that exceeds your capacity. Tell the requester that you are at capacity and they must sort out your relative priorities with their colleagues

right now your enabling their lack of planning, and your afraid to say no. Having a clear capacity plan that you can share with them helps them to understand you are not a machine with infinite capacity, but a human and you also need to plan.

alternative
ymif that all seems a bit beyond you and then, . Book your time out as if your off for the day before you go and day you come back. Tell them you’re leaving the day before.
sure turn up, finish last minute stuff…but just say to them “I’m not here” repeatedly if they want you to do stuff on that day.

"Dear Colleagues.

As you know I'm going on holiday for 2 weeks. Everything that needs to be done before I go must be sent to me by the Tuesday 5pm before I go.

Anything sent after that time will not be done and the email deleted.

Any emails sent to me while I'm away will be deleted.

Any emails I haven't had a chance to deal with even if received before Tues 5 pm will be deleted.

No I won't be bringing back any treats.

XX"

You need.to give a deadline by which you can do the work which is several days before your leave . If they miss that you can send them instructions on how they can do it themselves and say if they want you to do it, it will be done when you get back as you can't get it done in time now .

I'm afraid you won't be able to do.much about lining up work for.when you are back. That happens in lots of jobs but the advice re working through things in order of being asked and giving warning of when you will have it done , along with advice as to how others can do it themselves if they can't wait for you to complete the work is the best way forward.

Bring it up at the next team meeting and find a solution to it as a team. They’re probably not aware of how stressed you are. Enjoy your hols!

Tell you manager then forward all email requests on to them

@SilverGlitterBaubles

An organisation with an over reliance on one person to provide a key element of their function is taking a big risk.

I agree. And by the time those firms realise, it's too late. As they found out during COVID. All those doughty middle-aged types who were the eyes and ears of the company - putting in hundreds of hours of unpaid overtime and going above and beyond without formal recognition - rightly had a lightbulb moment and thought to themselves, no more, I'm done with this bollocks.

Another side effect of the pandemic that the UK will never recover from.

Probably nhs...ther is never cover for anything or anyone.

I would just email back. « Unfortunately I don’t have capacity to complete this before my annual leave. I will put it on my list for my return. »

Job done.

And actually this is your managers job to deal with. Copy them into any emails where you push back and then raise it in your next 1:1.

When I return from leave, I put an out of office reply on to say that 'I've returned from annual leave and I'm working through my backlog of work. Please direct any urgent enquiries to....'

I don't attend any meetings until I've caught up with things.

Nobody says anything negative and everybody understands what it's like to return to hundreds of emails.

Yes, I used to get this a lot. And like you, I would get very stressed, and even let it spoil holidays.

Then something happened in my life to make me realise I need to start looking after myself.

Now, when they try this, I say something along the lines of ‘here are 8 tasks I have been asked to do, but only have time to do maybe 3 out of these 8 tasks. Please let me know which tasks I should prioritise’. Make sure any necessary levels of management are copied in.

When they get back to you (assuming they are reasonable) work on your tasks in the priority order they give you and get as far as you can WITHIN YOUR CONTRACTED HOURS. If they come back with the unreasonable response of ‘you have to do everything’ then decide the priority yourself, do the same as above. Before you go out of office, put a final update of where you’re up to, and what still needs to be done, framed in the context of ‘as I said on my email of x date, I did not have time to complete all tasks by y date. I have therefore prioritised accordingly. Here are the tasks that may not be able to wait until
my return and may need support diverted to them’.

Then stick your out of office on and unapologetically enjoy your time off. It may feel terrifying at first but I promise they’ll respect you more for it and soon get the memo.

Talk to you your boss and agree a plan. I would suggest something like - send out a few emails in advance. The first one says something like 'I will be away from x to x so please note if you need anything completed before I leave, you will need to get it to me by (insert day of the week at your choice). Anything that is received after this time cannot be guaranteed to be completed by xxx, and will be attended to upon my return. Anything scheduled for my return will be attended to in due course but timings cannot be guaranteed. Thank you for your consideration'. Then send two more closer to the time, reminding them of this. Do not deviate from what you have said you will do.

Jeez OP grow up. This is how it is for practically all people going on holiday: Lots of priority work to clear before going, lots of priority work to clear on return.

We had one very officious and up themselves person who called me while I was on holiday in France. There was nothing we did that was that urgent. I hung up and put in a complaint when I got back. Our manager bollocked her.

Sometimes you have to let things fall over for management to take notice and learn the lesson. If you continue to fix things (at significant stress to yourself) then they will never learn. You did everything right; you gave plenty of notice, gave deadlines and explained the situation. If you continue to fix things at a tactical level all the time then then the hierarchy will never notice the issue and nothing will ever change.
I work a stressful full time job where things like deadlines depend on me but I make sure (as you have done) that I do everything I can to manage expectations before I go away with months of notice and get as much sorted as possible in advance (within reason). And guess what, the world keeps on turning in my absence.

I put an out of office auto email reply which basically says, “I am on annual leave until x date. You email has not been forwarded and not been actioned. On my return I will action your request but it may take a longer than normal whilst I catch up so please bear with me. I will triage as best I can. If it is urgent or time sensitive then please contact the following people in my absence (insert relevant colleagues emails/phone numbers).”

I then go on holiday and don’t give two hoots about work… afterall, that is what a holiday is for. Life is too short and no matter how crucial your role, or how high-ranking or hard-working and conscientious you are, you deserve a break.

Make sure you chat to HR and your managers so they all know that you have tried to mitigate your absence as much as possible and then go and have a lovely holiday.

Whilst i’m on my soapbox… it doesn’t matter if you’re spending your annual leave in the Caribbean, camping in Outer Mongolia, spending half term with your kids, or sitting at home in your pants binge watching Netflix - leave is is leave and people shouldn’t bother you and you shouldn’t feel guilty.

if you have a nice period of leave then everyone benefits - your family, your mental health and also your team/employer because you come back less stressed and ready to tackle the next few months until you go on leave again.

”Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”. Amen!