When you work for a small company, a day away is work that still needs doing.
Julia and I have returned from our four day kayaking adventure (+ 2 days: prep and cleanup). It was awesome!
Today, I have a little case of the “returning to work blues” after some much enjoyed time off, and the Automattic trip in California before that, it’s back to work as usual — though I do feel enabled to accomplish more (teaser). At the very least, I have a “bad case of the Mondays”.
Monday is my least favorite day mostly because my work doesn’t take breaks when I do, and although the weekend is slower, come Monday there is at least a quarter day for me to catchup on.
Today is Wednesday, but it sure felt like Monday, and it will be Friday before I catch up with all the most important items on my plate. Thankfully, I work with such an awesome team, that even in the holiday absence of other members of the team they were able to carry
I get a kick out of what Matt Cutts’ away message said when I emailed a few months ago while he was on vacation. The response basically said if the reason I am writing is urgent contact so-and-so, but if it can wait then send the email again after such-date as he would be deleting all his email when he returned. Definitely an interesting solution, though sounds like only part of larger email challenges for him.
Being part of a small team fiercely working to be the best we can, I couldn’t get away with deleting all my email, and email isn’t really my problem. I tend to collect the tasks that need active “managing” for lack of a better word, and that is the origin of much of my pain 
But it all needs doing.
Do you work for a small company whose work doesn’t go away when the sun goes down? What is your secret?
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12 Comments
My secret? Asking Lloyd to answer the tough question
been at a a company like that for 4 months now. my solution thus far has been to not take any days off. i’m scared of what to do when that changes.
Joseph, yeah right. You can ask me the “policy” and if Mark or Barry aren’t around the support stuff, but I couldn’t program myself out of a box, and you could!
Adam, oh no, you are creating the same self inflicted wound that I did while at IBM, Mercurial and then at Flock!
I hope they appreciate your magic, and you are getting the rewards (ownership) you deserve!
Julia is the best at helping me find at least a little balance, and the reality is that with a little off time, my work is that much better! (Are we really any more productive than those Europeans that take months off each year?)
Well, I can’t say I work at a small company (56,000 people). Or a small office (roughly 5000 people). Or even a small team (just over 20 of us spread over Japan, Hong Kong, India, Europe, the US and Canada). But I can definitely say my work (financial markets) doesn’t take breaks when I do.
Now I’m not sure if I’m in an unusual position but, I don’t find my work any different from when I was at a company of six; there are days I work till 4am, there are days I go home at 6:30pm, but I can say that more than anything else, the people I work with make it worth every minute.
When the sun goes down here, some of my work gets picked up in Mumbai, London, the US and Canada, and finally comes back to me, some sits and waits, and some new stuff shows up.
So what’s my secret then? For me, it’s to make sure you love what you do and surround yourself with a great team. I’m lucky to have both. Even though a week away inevitably means over 2000 mails in my inbox when I get back, I always feel like I’m working on something challenging, rewarding, and interesting, and I’m constantly learning from the people around me.
That said - if anyone already knows this secret, it’s you!
Well… the above and a serious dose of email filtering.
I know what you mean Lloyd about “a day away is work that still needs doing”. The real challenge for myself is getting things done without the ability to get into a routine. My work changes so drastically that I don’t have that luxury.
What works best for me is keeping a constant list of things to do in order of importance and then knocking them off in order around my timetable. I then pass on the things that are not as important to people on my team when away.
As most of my time is phone work, I just leave a message on whom to call for important things or do what my wife hates the most about me…..”answer the phone”.
The real secret is loving what you do because when times get tough or too busy, passion is the only driving force in my mind.
I try to actively avoid taking ownerships of any tasks that have a continual maintenance component… or automate them as much as possible.
For support emails, I imagine using one of those autotext entry programs could help a lot.
for common responses, create autotext shortcuts
lifehacker.com writes about tools like that a lot
My strategy: when I want to take time off, I pull someone aside and say:
“I want you to make my decisions for one week. You are going to make mistakes. I know this for a fact because I do my own job for a living, and I make mistakes every week doing it.”
“You’re going to be outside of your comfort zone. I know this because I’m the only one who’s in my comfort zone doing this job. If you were comfortable doing my job, you’d already be doing my job. On the other hand, you might fall right into your comfort zone, so when I come back, if there’s any pieces of my job you want to take over, you can have them.”
“I will not fault you for any mistakes you make this week. Just do the best job you can - that’s all I do - and be on the lookout for things you want to grow into.”
“You won’t finish everything that comes up. I know this because I don’t finish everything either. (Time to plug GTD.) Accept the fact that things will pile up, and that’s okay. Your mission next week isn’t to keep up with my work, but just to make decisions for me.”
“We’re going to start two days early. I’m leaving Saturday, but on Thursday, you’ll start doing my job. I will be finishing up small stuff, and I’ll change my out-of-office autoreply and my phone voicemail to mention you. That way you can get up to speed gradually, and ping me on things that have you stumped.”
I’ve never had a phone call during a vacation yet. (Of course, some of that probably has to do with me vacationing out of the country or on cruise ships, yuk yuk yuk.)
The problem I always run into is keeping the impending catching up from starting to nag at the back of my brain even while I am still enjoying time off.
That is the worst part about taking a vacation. When you come back you have a couple weeks of work waiting for you. I like Matt’s solution. Just delete it all and start from scratch.
I like Brent’s comment. To leave work behind and truely have a fun vacation, you have to be able to leave work behind. By allowing someone else to make decisions while your gone, maybe the pileup won’t be that bad when you get back.
“I get a kick out of what Matt Cutts’ away message said when I emailed a few months ago while he was on vacation. The response basically said if the reason I am writing is urgent contact so-and-so, but if it can wait then send the email again after such-date as he would be deleting all his email when he returned. Definitely an interesting solution.”
Hate to say it, but he wasn’t the first guy to invent that one. The reality is he probably won’t delete it though, just stick it in a big folder so he can go back if he has to. Then trick is first day, during update meetings, just ask people to say what’s relevant.
It’s also really interesting way of seeing what is/is not really truly important in the business world. So many fires that were “100% totally incredibly critical” on Tuesday, aren’t even in the top 10 by Friday. Tasks, while not being emails, time away and perspective sure help you cut through what is critical and what’s not.
Then again if your boss commands you do all of the tasks, then it doesn’t really matter anyway. Except getting you pissed off.