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.

This! Your job role sounds similar to mine, & I also have no cover when I’m away. My colleagues are generally very good at pitching in when needed, but my boss can be very demanding at times.

Last time I asked him if he’d like me to stop what I was doing (that I’d been told was urgent) to start the new task (also needed completing immediately apparently). He got the hint! X

Every! Flipping! Time! Does my head in and my LM is part of the problem 😡

We have a policy where the last day before leave of a week or more, is designated for making sure all arrangements are in place, and the first day after leave is for catching up with emails and other admin. And deadlines are self-explanatory. Not your problem.

If someone is able to schedule in something to be an urgent delivery when you are back after two weeks, then they are able to work on it themselves in the two weeks you are away. WTH?

If there is no cover, then your line manager is your cover. Let them deal with the bs.

You're not being unreasonable, that's really poor form and poor planning on their part. I think you should flag this to either your or their line managers and arrange for some sort of comms to go out outlining expectations for upcoming annual leave!

You ate not alone. This literally happens to DH every time. His last week he was at the office until 6pm eveey day and at home up until 3am working! And when he gets back it will be all pilled up again.

I had a colleague who ALWAYS called in sick the day (or 2) after their holiday! And I mean EVERY SINGLE TIME..... We all knew not to expect them 🤷
Personally, I wouldn't have the front to do that but maybe you could have a bit of a dodgy tummy/migraine/general feeling of unwellness upon your return this time?
For the record, I don't believe anyone is entitled to sick leave if they aren't sick but it does sound like OP's selfish colleagues are borderline making her ill.....

But the team never submit their work to you in a timely manner and you never do anything about it

🙄

I used to work as an administrative support and to me it sounds like you are too efficient. I worked under such pressure and more tasks I cleared more they added. Then I quit and my replacement did half the workload I used to do. Suddenly they needed to step up and get organised because clients started to complain.

My advice - be less efficient. Unfortunately you need to set the boundaries because they won't. Just write a professional email like suggested above with set deadlines and stick to them, don't bulge. And don't stress, its just the job! Good luck!

You're not alone, it happens all the time! Administrators/secretaries/PAs etc are generally organised people so it grates on us even more!!

I'd go ...(assertively ) "no I'm afraid I can't do that before I go and this is why I gave you plenty of notice. Is there no way you can plan better next time as I am entitled to my time off , but this way you ask me to do everything last minute is ruining my time off and having a negative impact on both my mental health and the time I should be spent relaxing . Is there no way this can be planned better for next time as it happens every time I go away and I'm sure if you were asked last minute.com in your role to do lots before you go away the answer might be the same. Can you please work with me towards a solution ? Thanks in advance for your support in this matter. Kind Regards OP..."
Only if u got a good boss , this is a suggestion of what u could say ^ , spell check it and don't get sacked cos of it (weigh it up 1st) . Ttfn

Boundaries op!! Group email; dear all, it doesn’t work to squeeze the next 3 weeks of tasks you have for me into this week before I go on holiday. I will do as much as I can but I will not finish all the requests i have been sent, and please be aware I won’t get to any new requests at all. Thanks for your understanding.

forward it to your manager stating not having any cover for me is a real problem- the reality here is I’m not going to get through half of what I have been sent, I’m not working till 3 in the morning every night this week just to be able to go on holiday. It won’t be done, and if thats a problem you need to get cover. There will be a huge backlog as always when I get back so you should make people aware that as long as there is no cover for me it will take weeks for me to catch up again.

then just do what you can, and think fuck you when every new request comes in.

Do you have a manager? Do they actually manage anything?
If you are self-supervising then you need to set boundaries and report back to your boss when the other workers push the boundaries.

Just wondering whether you set them a cut off deadline for work that needs completed before you go on leave? E.g. Wednesday for anything to be completed by the Friday? Sorry if I missed it in your posts.

Also I would make clear in your comms to them that on your return after 2 weeks off you will be coming back to a busy period so they need to do what they can to stretch out their deadlines to avoid you having a major bottleneck on your first couple of days back.

You're only one person and can only do what you can do. And if you end up rushing and compromising quality then it's your neck on the line, not theirs.

It's crap but doesn't everyone have a bit of a mad rush before they go on holiday?

But have you/will you speak to your manager about it all?

If not, why not? Why aren't they aware?

The other thing I always found was that yes, I could set a Wednesday deadline before going away but just about everybody would leave it until the deadline to send me their work (" But I sent it on Wednesday", yes at 7:30pm!). Fine, assuming each piece of work takes me a day I can get 2 or maybe 3 items done before I go, but with 5 people all sending me 2 pieces at the very last moment, they all seemed to expect that I could do theirs & never realised that everybody else was also leaving things right up to the deadline.

As I said above, you need to dump this on your boss including the job of telling everyone why their job hasn't got done rather than leaving it to you to take all the flak. If he/she is inconvenienced by this, and has to explain to THEIR boss why things haven't been done, then they are more likely to get this sorted for you.

Our clerical staff would send an email to us all stating when she was on leave and for how long, a few weeks before she went on leave. Ccd our manager into it. Stated if anyone needs something urgently to forward it now/ what she could and couldn't do/ and what her cut off was for new work, if this was relevant, and usually 2 or 3 days before she went on leave...dependent on the tasks she had to get through before she left. The week before she went on leave she sent an update/reminder of her leave and what needed still to be done. Ccd manager to it. Anything after the deadline was responded to by email stating why it could or couldn't be done, especially if there was an unreasonable request or timeline. Ccd to manager, so if anything wasn't completed there was a clear emsil trail .

She agreed this would happen with her clerical manager and the team manager due to ongoing issues and the fact that there would never be a replacement for her leave. This had been discussed at meetings where she would remind us that she still had to complete her usual workload, prep for her leave and carry out last minute jobs and tasks. She was very good and made sure day to day tasks were completed in advance as much as possible. All work that was needed to be completed on her return would be listed for her and an expectation of a timeline for when it might be completed. She accepted this and would negotiate with the relevant person on her return for more realistic timelines if necessary. It isn't easy but get your line manager on side and it will help enormously.

Next time send a basic timetable

“if you need X completing before my leave then you need to send an email before close of play on Y date. Any email received after this time will be dealt with on my return”

do this for each of the task types, if they miss the deadline the buck stops with them unfortunately

Speak with your manager. This is not acceptable behaviour. Do what you can in your alloted hours but anything not completed is down to your colleagues inability to effectly manage their workloads.

I have the same issue, if going on leave it is unrealistic for work to still be being given to you to do right up until the last minute. You need to agree a deadline with your manager which is a cut off point possible a couple of days before you go on leave and stick to it. Good luck with getting this sorted.

If you are that essential to delivery then when you go on holiday your boss needs to organise admin cover-arriving a couple of days before you go.
Some people will always go down to the wire on deadlines-that's going to change, so you need cover.

A brilliant ex boss of mine once advised me to state in my ooo message that all emails would be deleted upon my return, so if it’s urgent please email again when I’m back from my leave.
I have to confess that I usually have a quick look, but there’s zero expectation that I’ll have read the email.
Your workmates need to get their shit together!!

A brilliant ex boss of mine once advised me to state in my ooo message that all emails would be deleted upon my return, so if it’s urgent please email again when I’m back from my leave.

I've occasionally seen that sort of message (very rarely in the work I do) I don't think it's brilliant advice, the tone is really off and unprofessional - if a senior manager got that pinging back at them, it would not be a good look. I'd never advise to delete all emails indiscriminately, no way.

@daisychain01 she was the Head of Service. One rung under the CEO, and she advised all her senior managers to do the same!!
Neither she, nor I, have time to go through the hundreds of emails received while off for 2 weeks. 90% of the time the issue is sorted by the time I get back, and if it hasn’t been, and it’s genuinely important, they’ll get back in touch!!
I guess it depends on your organisation.