Leaving for a Vacation
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Out of Office Checklist: What Needs to be Done Before Leaving for a Vacation?

When your vacation is approaching or you are Leaving for a Vacation, you can feel your excitement bubbling over and you are about ready to jump out of your seat and hop on that plane.

However, much like when preparing for your trip, you should also prepare certain things that you leave behind ‒ like your office situation, for instance.

That said, we have listed down the things you should include and tick off from your pre-vacation checklist before Leaving for a Vacation:

Set up your out of office email

There might be a few emails or messages that you automated to send out, which would fall under your vacation.

Whether you are dealing with clients or other business relationships, you want to make sure that they know you are unavailable. Otherwise, the lack of response from you might lead to misunderstandings and additional work problems that nobody needs.

Therefore, you should make sure that you set up a message that lets people know that you are not in the office.

Let them know that you will not be able to respond fast since you’re on vacation. If you can, try and direct their queries to the appropriate person who can answer on your behalf. Of course, make sure the point person you assign knows that.

Communicate with your coworkers

If you don’t inform your coworkers of your upcoming vacation, then they might not be adequately prepared for your leaving.

Leaving out of the blue can be quite rude, especially if the whole office is on a time crunch. Therefore, a week or two before your vacation, make sure that you give your coworkers a heads up.

That way, you can help them prepare for the workload that you might need to drop while you’re away.

Finish your deadlines first

Another discourteous act to do when you go on a vacation is to leave behind a task whose deadline is on or before your holiday.

Your office mates are going to end up scrambling to get it done while you are away on your vacation. Instead of letting other people pick up after you, make sure that you finish all urgent deadlines before leaving.

If the deadline is not until two weeks after your vacation, then it can wait. Finishing your urgent deadlines before you leave is going to give you the peace of mind to enjoy your vacation anyway.

Hence, why would not you want to give yourself that peace during your vacation that you worked so hard to get?

Task someone to cover for you

Having a point person that people can go to as a substitute due to your absence is going to help them deal with specific work concerns better.

Since you will not be there to answer questions, and it would be unproductive to try and do work while you are supposed to be on vacation, having someone cover for you is the next best thing.

Make sure that whatever you are signing your coworker up for is something that they know they can handle. Poor management of the work will not only ruin their professional reputation but also yours.

Therefore, you should make sure that they are aware of what they need to do and what their responsibilities are. In return, you can treat them to lunch after your vacation or you can give them a souvenir.

Provide a work manual

Speaking of someone covering for you, providing a work manual is going to help ease the transition for them.

Ideally, you should have one way before your vacation so that you have the best chance of creating understandable instructions that anyone can follow.

Creating clear cut directions that they can follow and reference is going to be a huge help.

Tidy up before you leave

One of the most critical steps you need to take before you leave the office for a vacation is to tidy up.

Once you come back from your trip, you want to be able to make the transition from vacation to work easier for you. And at Maid Sailors Office Cleaning Service NYC, we know that having a cluttered and dirty office desk is going to make that a massive challenge for you.

Therefore, cleaning up your desk before you go is a great way to help you feel more productive even after a vacation.

Conclusion

There are certain things you can do that will make the transition from work to vacation and then back to work again more seamless.

Preparing your office situation before going for a vacation will not only benefit your and colleagues, it can also help you have a guilt-free vacation. That’s because the office is still able to function properly while you are away.

That said, make sure that you accomplish the six tasks listed above so that you can go on your vacation without stepping on people’s toes to get it.

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