This week I was in the DC Washington area and did a remote live interview with Fox News Tampa Bay. I wanted to share with you the 5 tips that I shared in the interview. These are tips to keep in mind when taking a vacation to help you prevent worrying about your job security.
1. Team up with a trusted “Buddy” at work. You delegate what needs to be done, key contacts to be made, duties and deadlines that need to be completed while you are on vacation. Make sure this is a competent co-worker who is someone that is a team player, and most of all, someone that you trust. Then you return the favor when your “Buddy” goes on vacation.
2. Communicate and approach your manager ahead of time, schedule your vacation during a non-peak period for your particular business or industry, your manager will appreciate the fact that you planned ahead and came up with this system, you’ve made it easy for your manager to approve your vacation request. This also shows that you care about your job and the company.
3. If you can “disconnect” from work completely, that is what a vacation is for after all, to relax, decompress and re-charge those batteries. However, if you must stay connected, have rules and parameters as to when you will be available to take calls or emails. On a 1 week vacation, it might work like this, I will be available for “emergencies only” and you can reach me at this number, but make sure that everyone knows what defines an emergency. Besides this exception, you could make yourself available on certain days and times, such as between 9:00 and 10:00 am on Tuesday, and then 7:00 and 8:00 PM on Thursday.
Make sure to communicate, set the parameters and stick to them.
4. Know the company culture from the start and this means at the job interview, or after a job offer has been extended, ask about the topic of vacations, and are we “unplugged” during vacations? Then you will know from the very beginning what you can expect and make the decision as to whether this company is the “right fit” for you. The very first vacation that you take with any company will in all likelihood dictate how vacations will work in subsequent years, keep this is mind, because how you treat a vacation and whether you stay “plugged in” sets expectations.
5. This is very important, if you don’t take a vacation, you will feel cheated, and you’ll probably feel some resentment, anger, stress and the likely result is that you will burn yourself out. So what good are you now? Make sure you take time off, if you don’t, you will likely regret it later.
Sincerely,
Kevin Connell
Founder & CEO of AccuScreen.com
To see the full interview with Kevin Connell on Fox News Tampa Bay you can go here.
