Vacationing Is a Team Sport, So Be Sure to Acknowledge and Support Your Teammates

Unless you work entirely alone, taking some time away from work to relax and recharge is a team sport.

While you’re away somebody – or, more likely, multiple somebodies – must cover for you, must take care of matters that normally would have landed on your desk, and must make sure the whole place doesn’t come to a standstill because you’re not around.

And when they go on vacation, you have to do the same for them.

So upon returning from a recent, much-needed vacation with my own family I struck upon the idea of sending my team at work a “Thank You” note like this:

Dear Colleagues,

Last week, you were absolutely amazing. You were thoughtful and caring to cover the office while I was out and to truly prioritize what was important and urgent and needed attention while I was out versus items that could wait. 

Here are my favorite examples:

• I had a request for a call to go over some updates on a project. When the person found out I was on vacation they said “it can wait.”
• I had a call from an employee that needed urgent help on something so we scheduled it during an off hour versus in the heart of the day so as to avoid my family time
• One colleague offered to get on a call over the weekend after we came back from the trip so that I could catch up prior to the start of the next week

So, thank you and I owe you one.

Josh

As you can tell from my note, I did do a bit of work while I was away with my family. But I made sure I did it early in the morning, before the rest of my family was up and ready to have fun, or at least to do it during hours when it would not disrupt my family time. On my end, that was easy. It just involved getting up a little early, or scheduling a small bit of quiet time in my vacation day.

But for my colleagues back at the office it meant, in some cases, changing their personal schedules and getting up a little early to talk with me in the pre-dawn hours. Sometimes it meant finding a hole in their already busy schedules to take care of matters that otherwise I would have handled. Or, as one colleague did, it meant taking some of his personal time over the weekend to get on the phone with me so I could get brought up to speed on all I needed to know before returning to the office.

I am the grateful beneficiary (along with my family) of my colleagues’ sacrifices. I am indebted to them for helping make my family vacation so much fun and restful. As a result, I now am even more happy to reciprocate when they go away on their vacations.

That’s what true teammates do for each other. Not only does it ensure that the necessary work still gets done in the absence of a team member, it builds trust, character and even esprit de corps that will have many significant payoffs over time for the organization, the team and, perhaps most importantly, the individual team members.

So next time you get away for some much-needed relaxation time, keep in mind your teammates back at work who’ve got your back. And upon your return, remember to thank them, whether it’s with a handwritten note, an email or even a personal comment.

I can’t think of a more appropriate – and fruitful – way to bring your great vacation to a close.

See you on board.

Josh