This multipart post is focused on helping people navigate what can be a very stressful time of year, summer vacation season.  Last week I introduced the issue and gave my first recommendation.  We are going to carry-on this week with some more suggestions.

My second piece of advice is to not be afraid to ask for help.  If you are like me, you are hard pressed to say no when a colleagues who is going away asks you for help either before or while they are away.  However, you may be reluctant to actually ask for help yourself.  Nobody is Superman or Wonder Woman!!  We can’t do it all.  We all need to take a break to refresh and recharge and we owe it to ourselves, our coworkers and most importantly our family to “break free” for a time.  As painful as it might be for you, asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it is one of the benefits of being part of a team. Don’t let your pride get in the way of asking for help, especially when you are looking to get away for a clarity break. 

Next, this is sort of the opposite of the previous recommendation, but  don’t just say yes to every request that comes your way.  If someone is trying to delegate something to you before you have an upcoming break, if it is going to make your work-life a disaster right up until you step away consider saying no.  I am not suggesting that you are unhelpful to others.  I am really speaking of situations where you don’t have the capacity to help out.  If you don’t want to say no, then work collaboratively with the individual who is delegating to you and your supervisor (if they are different people) to determine what you can deprioritize on your to do list to make room for the new request.  Simply taking on more is a recipe for doing nothing particularly well, which is not ideal at the best of times, but can be a disaster during the summer season.

If you are going to fill in for someone while they are away, make sure you get all the information you need to do the job right.  When someone is getting ready to go away, they are often one foot in vacation land and are just trying to get out the door.  That can sometimes lead to sloppy delegation.  “Hey can you take care of this for me, yes thanks, see you in a couple of weeks”.  While this might be the easiest path to take it can often to lead to stress for all involved.  You, since you likely won’t know what it is you need to do exactly, and the person who delegated because they will probably have to clean it up when they get back.  Make getting what you need to succeed a condition of your taking on the responsibility.  It is in everyone’s best interest.

Looks like we are going to get into a Part 3 of this series on making the most of the summer holiday season.  Be back here next week!