Lip Service Never Feels Good
Your team will notice when what you say and do are not aligned
We always had the week between Christmas and New Years off in higher education.
Students had already gone home for the holidays. Faculty, too, were gone—their grades submitted and the fall semester in the rearview mirror.
It made more sense to shut down the university than to keep all of the buildings lit and heated, so for 8-12 glorious days—depending on where in the week the holidays landed—the university was closed.
It’s one of the things I miss about working in higher ed. Not just the extra time off—although that was nice—but time off when everyone else was out-of-office, too.
You could really, truly relax because no one was sending emails, Slacks, or anything you’d have to catch up on when you returned.
Ahhhh ….
Needless to say, we do not have the week between Christmas and New Years off at Amazon, although many, many folks (me included) do take 1-2 weeks off at the end of the year to unwind.
We’re even encouraged to do so.
In a pre-recorded, all-team meeting the week before Christmas, leader after leader hopped on camera to talk about the importance of taking off at this time of the year to spend time with family and friends, refresh, and prepare for another exhilarating (or was that exhausting?) year ahead.
It’s a great sentiment … if it didn’t sound like lip service.
Every. single. leader. said pretty much the same thing. So much so that a colleague (jokingly?) said it sounded like they were all handed a script—the same script.
That same colleague (and others who joined our conversation) also noted that the comments would still have been great—if they didn’t feel like mixed messages.
Like, I’m going to take time off and you should too … but here let me send you a bunch of emails/Slacks that you may or may not need to respond to while I am (and you are) out. At minimum, I’ll ensure you have lots to catch up on when you return. 🤦🏼♀️
Now … I know many of these leaders well and they all are good people. I’m sure most actually do believe in the importance of taking a break.
A number of them still sent plenty of emails during their break, though.
So if you’re that leader, here’s a pro-tip …
When you tell your team to take time off, say it like you mean it and not like you’re reading a hostage script (“my captors have been very kind to me and I believe fully in their cause” 😳).
Or better still, actually mean it.
And for the love of all that’s holy … stop. sending. emails. during. your. PTO.
If you really, really must do email clean-up, schedule your emails to send when you—and everyone else—is back in the office.
Because no matter how many times you tell people they should respond at a time that’s convenient for them, if you take time off but work anyway it will only sound like lip service to them.
And lip service never feels good.
Bonus Reads! A reminder to unplug when you’re on vacation … or sick.
This is the soap box I’ll stand on every single time. Stop putting your phone number in your out of office - nothing is ever that important and if for some reason it is, your leadership can get ahold of you. Take real time off, don’t message your team, don’t check in.
But also executive leadership exclaiming that at end of year and then inevitably scrambling for docs, false escalations, BS crap that doesn’t need to be done is a joke. FFS look at what you’re actually asking of your team.
Whew… didn’t think I could still be that passionate about work dynamics 😂😂