Beyond being a legal requirement, time off is essential to well-being. Naturally, we might say. Lack of rest actually causes fatigue and can have significant impacts on the company (scheduling, financial health), the team (internal communication, management, burnout, frustration).
How can you ensure that everyone can take time off with peace of mind, without feeling like they're leaving behind a massive pile of unfinished work? How can you allow everyone to avoid having to double their pace before leaving, and arriving at vacation exhausted? How can you prevent overloaded to-do lists upon returning from leave and ensure a smooth landing back? Here are a few practices we use at Médianes to step away with complete serenity.
Get some rest
"I'll feel better after the holidays": how many times have we heard that? Whether you're an employee, founder, or manager, one thing is certain: you're not a machine. Avoid working for months without stopping—take breaks, even if it's just for a day! If you're leading a project, remember that you're running a marathon, not a sprint! The goal is to maintain a sustainable pace over time, not to burn out all your energy at once. It's essential that you rest, both for your own sake and to set the right example for your team.
Prepare your colleagues
Thinking about taking time off, but things aren't fully confirmed on your end yet? Whether it's months or weeks before the intended period, you can flag this possibility in your calendar by adding a
Finalize your time off request
At Médianes, we submit our leave requests via Payfit (for studio employees) or Jorani (for media staff — journalists). These are user-friendly tools that also make things easier for the HR team. An email is automatically sent once the leave is approved. It's worth noting that these tools also give employees visibility into their leave balances.
Share time off
Edit your calendar: your time off is approved! You can change from "TBC" to "OFF" in your calendar so no meetings are scheduled on those days, and your colleagues know they can't contact you during that period.
Update your email signature: a good practice is to announce your time off via email. To do this, we recommend editing your email signature with an italicized message indicating the period during which you will be away. This allows all your contacts to be aware of this information before your time off takes effect.
Send an email: Sharing your time off in a brief email to your key contacts is never a bad idea (and that's putting it mildly). In fact, isolating this information from other content ensures that the people you're targeting keep it front and center.
Mention it in a team meeting: after the written notice, say it out loud! Remind everyone of your vacation dates during a team meeting so it's top of mind for everyone, with no need to search for the information.
Set a Slack status: at Médianes, we use Slack for daily communication. Slack has a feature to edit your status; we make a habit of updating it while we're on vacation (though this also applies when we're traveling, in meetings, abroad, etc.). You can customize how long your status will stay active — a good way to remind your colleagues that you're unavailable and shouldn't expect a response from you while you're on leave.
Plan for a handover note
At Médianes, we have a tradition: handover notes! Essential for peace of mind when you leave, to avoid being disturbed while ensuring production stays on track.
Whether you're responsible for or engaged in a project, it's essential to disconnect during your time off. For a few days or weeks, you'll be transferring this responsibility to your team members, ideally mobilizing several people depending on the tasks and projects involved. Keep in mind that all your issues cannot be handled by a single person, since they already have their own workload to manage.
In practice? List your current and pending tasks, planned timelines, and any names or contact details of the people and contacts involved in these tasks. This will enable those who take over these matters to understand what needs to be produced and to meet deadlines while you're away.
Schedule an automated email
It is necessary to inform your contacts of your absence: this involves your team, but also external parties. At Médianes, we consistently prepare an auto-reply email to notify our clients, prospects and partners that we will be unavailable for a given period. We strongly encourage you to include a reference contact; this ensures continuity, particularly in case of urgent requests.
Anticipate the return
Before you leave, based on your handover notes, you can list the projects you will be working on when you return. We also invite you to block out a half-day in your calendar for focused work (no appointments or meetings) dedicated to catching up on various matters.
To go further
- Starting an entrepreneurial project doesn't have to mean sacrificing your personal life, as explained by Christelle Tissot, founder of the online media mūsae dedicated to mental health in an interview with Médianes.
- Whether it's planning our year, scheduling our meetings or sharing our tools, discover how the Médianes team shares its experience.
