If you’ve taken annual leave, you just want to have the time for yourself right? A week full of me-time and fun must be what you’ve been waiting for. Not worrying about meeting, clients’ email, or wondering if that guy from IT department understood your memo. Just thinking about work related things while you’re on holiday is enough to ruin the mood, isn’t it?
In our previous article, we wrote on why you should take annual leave. You can check the article here. One of the reasons why you should take annual leave is to get work-life balance. But how you get that work-life balance if you still think about work while living your life?
What is dos and don’ts while you take your annual leave? Here is some of it.
Dos:

1. Prioritize your holiday

• It sounds simple, but the first thing you need to do is recognize that you need and are entitled to holiday, and to make it a priority. Think about that times when you have to work overtime and meet the deadlines for super urgent work. Don’t feel guilty about taking annual leave cause you are entitle for it.

2. Handover Your Responsibilities

• Before taking leave, make sure to handover your responsibilities to your colleague(s). Encourage them to do decision making themselves without asking you first. So when you come back from holiday, there is no mountain of works that waiting for you.

3. Give Notice

• Whilst you obviously need to let your employer and your colleagues know that you’re taking holiday, you should let any clients or relevant external parties know, too. Give them one month in advance notice so if there should be any issues, you can take care of it before your holiday.

Don’ts:

1. Checking Work

• Do not tempted to open your email or open your work group chat. What’s the point of holiday if you still checking on your work. Put aside your gadgets and go enjoy your holiyay! 

2. Taking Debt

• You don’t need to go to Maldives or Hollywood to enjoy your days off. Simply go to nearest park or beach and enjoy your time is enough. Taking debt will just make you stressed more when you come back to work.

3. Use your holiday for other things

• Helping out your parents cleaning the basement or attic is one way to show that you are a good child. But if you use your holiday to do these, you will lose your opportunity to relax. Better enjoy your leave first then if you still have time left, help your parents.

But before you take annual leave, you need to go to HR department and ask if you can take annual leave. This can be such a tiring process. HR have to check if you still have annual leave entitled and check with your manager whether your responsibilities can be handled by your team or not.
Worry no more! Recommend your HR department our HR software. With our software, you can check your leave balance, apply for leave, and get notified when your leave request is accepted or rejected. Check out the leave management feature here or book a FREE DEMO here.