Some advice when you are off on leave: DO shut off your phones, email & relax! It is the time to freshen up, spend time with your family, friends or even just on your own to be you.
To free yourself up
- Get someone to act as your out of office buddy - they can help direct requests to the right person
- Do schedule stuff for your return - don't apologise for being away
- Do set an out of office message with the expectation that you will deal with things after your return.
- Make sure your customers also know you are off.
- For longer breaks- think of bringing in an extra (junior) person from outside of the region.
Customer engagement when you are off.
- Tell your customer you are off
- Make sure they understand how they can escalate or proceed without your help.
- Introduce your cover person and some checkpoints/coverage for them
Find it hard to take leave?
- Start to carve out a little time to educate or develop yourself and build from there.
- Work with team mates and colleagues on coverage for that role.
As a final thought, we discussed the Iceland 4-day week. Is this the future for presales work?