In a team of five, a two-week holiday is not a small event. The person who is away usually holds the customer replies, the weekly invoice run or the one supplier relationship nobody else has spoken to. Nothing dramatic happens on day one. By day nine a customer has waited too long, an invoice is late and someone is phoning a colleague on a beach.
This article is for owners and managers of small teams. It describes a simple way to prepare for absence, planned or not, using one page and about thirty minutes per person.
What actually breaks
Absence rarely breaks the work that is written down. It breaks the work that lives in one person's head or inbox:
- tasks that repeat on a schedule (invoicing, payroll data, weekly orders),
- promises already made to customers ("I will send it Thursday"),
- access that only one person has (a supplier portal, a shared mailbox, the domain account),
- decisions that only one person is allowed to make.
Most teams find that the list of things that truly cannot wait is short, often five to eight items. The goal of preparing is to find those items, not to document everything.
Step 1: separate "cannot wait" from "can wait"
Before leaving, the person writes down what they normally do in a week and sorts it into three groups:
- Cannot wait: a deadline or a customer is affected within the absence (for example, the invoice run on the 1st).
- Can be done later: useful but nothing breaks if it is delayed by two weeks.
- Can be paused: nobody will notice, and it can be dropped for now.
Only the first group needs a cover plan. Telling the team clearly that the third group is paused removes a lot of silent worry.
Step 2: name one cover person per task
"The team will manage" means nobody owns the task. For each "cannot wait" item, write one name. One person can cover several tasks, but each task has exactly one name.
Check two things with the cover person before the holiday, not after:
- they agree, and have the time in those weeks,
- they know how the task is done, ideally by doing it once together.
A task that has never been done by anyone else is the real risk. If time allows, ask the cover person to do it once while the owner is still there.
Step 3: share access safely
Cover often fails at a login screen. Plan access before departure:
- give the cover person their own account or a delegated role where the system allows it,
- use the company password manager for anything that must be shared, and see how to roll one out,
- do not send passwords by email or chat,
- remove temporary access when the person returns.
If a system only allows one login and no delegation, note that as a weakness to fix after the holiday.
Step 4: write the one-page note
The note is short enough to read in three minutes. It has six parts:
| Part | Example |
|---|---|
| Dates away | 4 to 15 August, no phone |
| Cannot-wait tasks | Invoice run on 1st, order confirmations, supplier X delivery check |
| Cover person per task | Invoice run: Jana; confirmations: Tomas; delivery: Jana |
| Where things are | Shared folder "Operations", the task checklists, the shared mailbox |
| Promises already made | Quote to a customer due on the 8th; call back on the 10th |
| When to contact me | Only if an order above a set value is at risk |
The example above is invented. Keep your own version in a place everyone already uses, and link it from the team calendar entry for the absence. For keeping such notes up to date over time, see keeping standard operating procedures alive.
Step 5: agree the contact rule
A holiday that comes with constant messages is not a holiday, and a holiday with no way to reach anyone can be risky. Agree one simple rule before leaving, for example:
- no contact, except for a named type of emergency,
- or one short check-in on a set day.
Write the rule in the note. It protects both the person who is away and the person who covers.
Step 6: handle the inbox and customers
Set an automatic reply that names the dates and a real contact for urgent matters. Decide who watches the shared mailbox and how often. Customers rarely mind an absence if they know whom to contact; they mind silence.
For longer or unplanned absence, such as illness, the same one-page idea applies. See handing over work when someone leaves or falls ill for that case.
The return routine
Coming back to a full inbox is where small things get lost. A short routine helps:
- The cover person spends fifteen minutes handing back: what was done, what is open, what surprised them.
- The returning person reads the handover first, not the inbox.
- Open promises are checked against the note and confirmed with customers if needed.
- Temporary access is removed.
- One improvement is written down: a task that was hard to cover, or a missing instruction.
That last step is what makes the next absence easier.
Common mistakes
- No cover person for the unglamorous task. Invoicing and order checks are the ones forgotten.
- Writing a long manual nobody reads. One page beats twenty.
- Sharing a password in chat. It works once and becomes a security problem later.
- Preparing on the last afternoon. Start a week before.
- Never testing the cover. A task done once by the cover person is far safer than one only described.
A thirty-minute routine
- List the week's tasks and sort them into three groups.
- Name one cover person for each "cannot wait" task and confirm with them.
- Arrange access through proper accounts.
- Fill in the one-page note and put it where the team looks.
- Agree the contact rule and set the automatic reply.
- Book fifteen minutes for the handback on the first day of return.
A team that does this a few times soon needs less time each round, and absence becomes a normal part of planning rather than a small crisis.
Sources
- Practical guidance based on common small-team operating practice, offered as a planning aid. The scenario, the table example and all names and dates are invented. No client results or performance figures are claimed in this article.