There are two universal housekeeping items that every vacation requires: (1) giving your team a heads up that you'll be out of office and (2) setting up your "away message" for when you're actually out of office.
If your team doesn't have a typical form or system for these messages, here are a couple templates to get you started.
What situations require a vacation notice?
If you're taking a vacation that is one week (i.e. five business days) or longer, you should probably send out a written notice about your absence. If you're out for less than one week, a verbal or in-person heads up might be sufficient as long as your colleagues are properly informed.
How much advance notice?
Giving advance notice for vacations is for both courtesy and workload purposes, so at least two weeks to one month is ideal. This will give people the right amount of time to mentally prepare for your absence and reschedule meetings or deadlines.
If you send out a written notice one month in advance, you might also want to send another reminder two weeks prior to your vacation just to make sure people haven't forgotten about it.
Useful tips
Rescheduling work: If you have daily or weekly responsibilities that require coverage, or meetings and deadlines to reschedule, it's helpful to indicate that you'll be making the proper arrangements. Not everyone needs to know all the details - it just helps to acknowledge that you've got it covered.
Include day of the week: When you list out date ranges for your vacation, be sure to include the day of the week so it's easier for people to count how many work days you'll be out (i.e., out of office Monday through Friday, and coming back the following Monday).
Optional contact person: It's optional to include a contact person for urgent matters, but this is helpful if you anticipate anything coming up or if you work regularly with external business partners who wouldn't have an alternate contact person handy.
Optional availability: Making yourself available during vacation time is quite a controversial topic, and although this depends heavily on your industry and role, it's important to know that providing your availability in an "away message" is completely optional. Some people may include a line saying, "I am generally offline but will be available by email for any urgent matters and will respond as soon as possible." It can be tempting to mimic this language if others are using it, but it's not something you need to include. You always have the option of responding to emails as you find necessary, which will also limit you to a healthy amount of screen time while you're on vacation!
TEMPLATE ONE // The Initial Heads-Up
Around two weeks to one month prior to your vacation:
To: [Your Manager]
Cc: [Other managers or supervisors you work with, your office/HR coordinator (if applicable), and any secretarial team members you work with]
Bcc: [Your teammates and any other colleagues you're working with, and anyone else who should know about your absence]
Subject: Out of Office [insert date range, i.e. Friday July 1st to Friday July 8th]
Hi all,
Please note that I will be out of office from [Friday July 1st] to [Friday July 8th] and will be returning on [Monday July 9th]. For urgent matters, please reach out to [optional contact info for your assistant, supervisor or colleague]. I will be reaching out individually to discuss our projects and arrange coverage as necessary.
Best,
TEMPLATE TWO // The (Optional) Reminder
Around one to two weeks prior to your vacation (I've bolded the differences from the first message):
To: [Your Manager]
Cc: [Other managers or supervisors you work with, your office/HR coordinator (if applicable), and any secretarial team members you work with]
Bcc: [Your teammates and any other colleagues you're working with, and anyone else who should know about your absence]
Subject: Reminder - Out of Office [insert date range, i.e. Friday July 1st to Friday July 8th]
Hi all,
Please be reminded that I will be out of office from [Friday July 1st] to [Friday July 8th] and will be returning on [Monday July 9th]. As mentioned, please reach out to [optional contact info for your assistant, supervisor or colleague] for any urgent matters. I have made arrangements regarding work assignments, but please reach out if you have anything further to discuss.
Best,
THREE // The Out of Office "Away" Message
Most email or work systems will allow you set up some form of "away" message when you are not available, and it will show up either as a profile status or an auto-reply.
Just be sure to double check the visibility of this message when you set it and make sure that the right people can all see it. If you need to set up different messages for internal and external contacts, be sure to double check that you've selected the correct settings.
To: [Autoreply to all emails]
Hello,
I am currently out of office from [Friday July 1st] to [Friday July 8th] and will be returning on [Monday July 9th]. For urgent matters, please reach out to [optional contact info for your assistant, supervisor or colleague, as appropriate]. I will respond to your message as soon as possible upon my return.
