It's 2 weeks holiday, not the end the of the world!

Sat at my desk in my office, i've started to wrap things up and sign things off ready for me to leave this place for the next 2 weeks.  All my team have been spoken to and understand the tasks for the coming weeks and all reports and spreadsheets have been completed and sent to the relevant people.  With all this having been done, why do people still get in a blind panic about me leaving?  All of a sudden the world and his wife feel they need to know every little aspect of my job so they can prepare for when the world comes crashing down.

All of a sudden, as I start sending emails to remind people i'll be leaving for the next few weeks, they decide this is the opportune moment to tell me of all the problems that they've been having.  Like i'm able to do something about it at 16.10 on the day i'm finishing.  People ring me to suddenly find out where files are kept that haven't even been looked at for the past 6 months!  It's craziness.

I've been very organised this time round and prepared briefing notes for all the folders I use and 'read me' documents so that everyone knows exactly what to do in different circumstances.  It's funny, but when ever one of my colleagues goes an holiday the only email I send them is one to say have a lovely time away and don't even give work a second thought.  When I go on leave, they act like i'm the only person in the world who can do my job.  As much as I would love to think i'm totally indispensable, the reality is i'm not.  I think that the truth of the matter is that no one actually likes the job I do and therefore no one wants to take on any responsibility for it in my absense.  I can understand this, I manage a team that has very varied personalities and it is a challenge.  I happen to love that part of my job and that's often what motivates me in a morning to get myself into work, the fact i'm working with such a diverse group of people all buzzing with different ideas and perspectives.  The fact that other people may not like it....well its tough i'm affraid, just deal with it for 2 weeks.

I also find it slightly amusing that my boss seems to have a need to find out what I do as well, after all they did hire me to do the job!  I can appreciate that we get so warpped up in our own working day and our own roles that we don't put aside time to learn what are colleagues and team mates do, i'm probably guilty of this as well.  I just think that if an email isn't answered for 2 weeks then it's ok and life as we know it will still carry on regardless.

You take a holiday to relax and unwind and here I now am at 20.33 in the evening still checking emails and making sure I haven't missed anything.  yes, I need to learn to switch off and forget about it and after a few days i'm pretty sure I won't be giving work a second thought.

xxxx