How can you manage phone calls while on vacation?

Clarity is key. Before vacation, proactively communicate availability to prevent disruption. Set clear expectations through auto-replies, voicemails stating dates you're offline and what level of urgency warrants contact. Delegate tasks to trusted colleagues. Clarity and advanced planning are kindnesses that avoid burdening others. With hectic jobs, everyone needs space to recharge. Yet ambiguity around absences stresses teams. Being transparent, tying up loose ends, and providing coverage enables your well-deserved break without leaving coworkers hanging. With some thoughtful communication and preparation, you can relax knowing all bases are covered. You’ll return energized, with your colleagues happily covering in your absence.

Perhaps you are a person who makes themselves overly available for your team which is commendable but it can come at the cost of you switching off. If you have a capable team who you believe can handle the work while you are on vacation, then hand over any necessary work to your team, set your out-of-office emails, turn off your work calls, and give your colleague(s) a personal mode of contacting you e.g. your personal phone number, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. This makes it so that they would (hopefully) think twice before contacting you but they have a means of doing it if they really have to. As a leader, it is important to role model what being "off" looks like.

Vacations offer a chance to recharge, benefiting your team and constituents upon your return. It's essential to uphold respect for your personal time and demonstrate the same commitment to yourself as you do for your organization. By clearly communicating your availability and setting expectations, you can strike a balance that allows you to relax while maintaining professional responsibilities when necessary.

I've found it beneficial to separate personal and professional phones, leaving the work phone at home, and placing trust in my team's capability to tackle office challenges in my absence. This not only empowers the team but also ensures a more rejuvenating and worry-free break, allowing me to recharge and return to work with renewed energy and focus.

If you must check in with work during your vacation, establish specific times for doing so. For example, you could allocate 15-30 minutes in the morning or afternoon to quickly respond to emails or calls.

In case there's a need for you to answer business calls whilst on vacation, this probably means you are a single point of failure in some process. For this, and many other reasons, it is good to always aim to make yourself dispensable: you'll have time during your vacation to think about what you would like to do next :)