Our expert talks about how to easily return to the work rhythm after long holidays.
Nuria Arkhipova
development director at the agency for effective personnel management SLG
According to psychologists, the difficulty of adapting to normal life after a vacation depends on temperament.
It is better for phlegmatic and melancholic people not to break up their vacation into parts, but to rest for a long time and fully, otherwise getting back into work can take a long time and be accompanied by apathy and melancholy. Cholerics, on the contrary, are not recommended to take a long vacation: people of this type switch from one thing to another very quickly and can simply get tired from a long, busy vacation. This is easiest for sanguine people: they can choose any length of vacation without any consequences for their emotional state.
And a few more tips on how to get into a working mood not only after a vacation, but also after long holidays.
Give yourself time to unwind
In the first working days, you can give yourself a little relief, but don’t mess around! Even if your boss doesn’t assign you any tasks, keep yourself busy. Clean out your mail, put your documents in order. If possible, do not schedule important meetings in the first week. Don't forget that you weren't the only one having holidays.
You should also not stay at work longer than expected, especially if you are phlegmatic by temperament - people of this type tend to endure any inconvenience and discomfort for a long time, but in the end this leads to an “explosion” of emotions.
How to properly prepare for the holiday season
Make a vacation schedule
Planning is the basics, and even more so with vacations. The schedule allows you to distribute labor and plan the budget. Here you can go in two ways: draw up a schedule yourself, without taking into account the wishes of employees, or take into account their preferences. In practice, this is usually done like this: employees are asked for their wishes and a preliminary schedule is drawn up, and then adjusted so that all parties are satisfied. But here you need to show diplomacy coupled with rigor: it is clear that everyone wants to go out in the summer.
Experienced managers generally follow the principle: if I have 12 people in my company, then 1 person per month should be on vacation, regardless of the time of year. But if you can afford to do without several employees, there is no point in depriving them of their summer vacation. Very often it is done this way: if an employee last year took vacation in the summer months, then this year he takes a vacation in the fall or winter and vice versa. But keep in mind: there are categories of employees who are entitled to leave at any time convenient for them , regardless of their schedule or length of service in your online store. These are parents of disabled children, victims of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, honorary donors, WWII veterans and others. These are off the charts. If you have employees who work part-time, the law requires you to give them vacation at the same time that they take it at their main job. Such employees also have their own schedule, this must be taken into account.
Sample vacation schedule
The approved vacation schedule must be printed and given to employees for signature. Better yet, post it in departments so employees are aware. The schedule is drawn up at the end of each year for the next. It is better not to wait until December, but to resolve this issue in October-November.
Plan your budget
As we have already said, a person going on vacation is entitled to an average salary . Now imagine: you have several people leaving en masse, and they all need to be paid one-time vacation pay. The amounts can turn out to be impressive, especially if you pay full official and white wages. It’s one thing if the business is very profitable and there are always reserves in your accounts for this case. But when finances are stretched, this can become a problem. And if we take into account the fact that the employee does not bring any profit at this time, and he needs to be paid, then this is a doubly problem.
To avoid getting into trouble, you need to put this money into the annual budget - into the payroll fund . Ask the accounting department to make such a calculation - this way you will not find yourself in a situation where a person goes on vacation and has nothing to pay him with. This is especially important when, in addition to legal vacation pay, you also pay various benefits. The law does not oblige you to do this, but many managers meet employees halfway and give them additional bonuses for their vacation.
Payroll structure
Do not release interchangeable employees at the same time
In general , this needs to be foreseen at the scheduling stage . This is what we are talking about here: for example, you have a head of sales and a senior manager. They should not go on vacation at the same time - this will sag your whole direction. You will have to take on this work yourself, or delegate it to someone. It’s better to avoid this: make sure that such employees go out at different times.
Another point: if one employee replaces another during his absence, he needs to arrange additional payment . This applies to all positions except full-time deputies. That is, when a senior manager performs the functions of the head of the sales department, he needs to be paid extra. The amount of additional payment is not established by law - it is determined by agreement of the parties, as they agree. This is usually a salary difference: a senior manager replacing his supervisor must receive the department head's salary. But not necessarily.
Ask employees to share vacation time
It’s one thing when a person is absent from work for a whole month and quite another if it’s only 2 weeks. Therefore, it would be advisable to ask employees to divide their vacations and take 2 weeks, say, in the fall and 2 weeks in the summer. And it’s easier with payment - you need to pay vacation pay not in full, but in part.
In this case, each employee will meet 2 times in the schedule. But there are possible overlaps here: it’s unlikely that anyone will want to take both halves of their vacation during the winter months.
Submit and accept cases
Is the employee going on vacation? On the last day while he is at work, go through his current tasks on the agenda . This is especially true for key workers, who are responsible for many issues. Let them tell you which issues are a priority, what needs to be sorted out and resolved first. It’s bad if some question hangs for 2 weeks or a month.
If the tasks are not urgent and can wait for the person who dealt with them in detail, it makes sense to wait. But it is better to delegate urgent issues to another performer . Appoint a responsible employee - let the one who goes on vacation bring him up to date. This simple trick will avoid many inconveniences.
Basic rules of delegation
Delegate authority wisely
Continuation of the previous paragraph. The work of an absent employee must be distributed evenly among other employees. If these are simple sales managers, it will be easier: the work is of the same type and template, you can easily delegate it to anyone. It’s more difficult with non-standard tasks: often only those who are completely immersed in the issue can complete them. But there is a way out - we wrote about this above. Another option is to require employees to complete important tasks before going on vacation and not leave them for later.
Literally, finish it and go on vacation. Very often, a couple of days before the long-awaited vacation, when the employee already has “one foot in there,” everyone starts to get a little lazy - this should not be allowed. On the contrary, before going on vacation, the employee must make a breakthrough and complete current tasks .
If it doesn’t work out at all, then at least you should know about such things and be prepared for them. Warn your partners and contractors that you are taking a time-out for a couple of weeks until the absent employee returns. “We have a person on vacation” is not a valid reason for downtime. The business must be built in such a way that everything functions without one or two people. If you have irreplaceable employees, that's bad.
Ask employees to reschedule their vacation to another time
An extreme measure, which should be resorted to only in urgent cases, when there is no other way. The main thing here is to arrange everything correctly and legally. Please note: the employee is not obliged to postpone vacation - this is his right . Therefore, before making changes to the schedule, the law requires obtaining the written consent of the employee. It is drawn up by hand in free form. It looks something like this:
“I (employee’s last name, first name and patronymic) agree to the transfer of the next paid leave from July 2021 to another time.” Date, signature.
The consent is written addressed to the head of the organization. But remember: after this you are obliged to provide the person with leave at any time convenient for him.
Example of an application for rescheduling a vacation
After receiving consent, you can issue an order for the organization - the employee is also introduced to it upon signature.
You can also call an employee back from vacation
But also only with his written consent. Without it, it can only be recalled to eliminate the consequences of accidents when there is a threat to the lives of the population. This does not apply to online stores, so consent will have to be obtained. In addition, a compelling reason for the recall is required: production necessity, illness of another employee, etc. Recall from vacation is regulated by Article 125 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
Remember: an employee has the right to refuse to leave - the law allows this . In general, a call is made in the same way as a transfer: you obtain consent and issue an order in which the employee must sign. It would be better if a memo from the immediate supervisor appears. In the document, he must state the reasons for the situation and justify the need to call an employee.
After this, the person has the right to take off the days worked at any convenient time, or add them to the next vacation.
Not everyone can be recalled from vacation. It is prohibited to interrupt the rest of pregnant women, persons under 18 years of age, as well as workers in hazardous working conditions.
Remember why you love your job
If the first two tips did not help, several days have passed, and you still find it difficult to get into a working mood, it’s time to remember what attracts you to the business you are doing. Of course, we are not considering a situation where a person hates his job and does it only out of necessity. Anyone who does something they don’t like doesn’t want to do it, regardless of holidays and weekends.
But if you are one of those who love their work, think about it: there are probably several positive moments - from the view from your office window to new interesting tasks and meetings with partners and colleagues. Concentrate on these thoughts instead of repeating to yourself over and over again, “Oh my God, I’ll go back to work tomorrow!”
If you are such a convinced introvert that just being in the company of other people is torture for you, you should think about working remotely.
How to fire someone for absenteeism
If you don’t believe the employee’s excuses, you can fire him for absenteeism - according to paragraphs. a) clause 6, part 1, art. 81 of the Labor Code.
Absenteeism is not only when an employee overslept and was four hours late or did not show up at all. The Supreme Court also considers the following situations to be absenteeism:
- The employee wrote a statement on his own, but did not work for two weeks, and for a temporary contract or on a probationary period - three days. Except in cases where the employer let you go without working.
- The employee went on vacation unscheduled or took time off without an application - clause 39 of Plenum Resolution No. 2.
For remote workers, absence from contact for more than two days is also considered absenteeism. But we need to look at how, according to the employment contract, we agreed to call and write off. If the connection is via zoom, and the employee is offline for two days, this is absenteeism - Art. 312.3, 312.8 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
A pregnant woman cannot be fired for absenteeism. Even if the employer was not aware of the provision. But a woman can be reprimanded and deprived of her bonus; there is no prohibition here - Art. 261 Labor Code of the Russian Federation, Determination of the Supreme Court No. 18-KG14-148.
For dismissing a pregnant woman, business owners may even be subject to a criminal case under Art. 145 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
An employee under 18 years of age can be dismissed for absenteeism only with the consent of the commission on minors’ affairs - Art. 269 Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
To fire someone for absenteeism, you need to fill out the paperwork and follow the procedure from Art. 193 Labor Code of the Russian Federation:
1. On the day of absenteeism, they draw up an absence from work report or write a memo. If an employee does not work for several days, a report or note is drawn up for each day.
Example of an absence from work report
2. The employee is asked for a written explanation.
Example of an explanatory note request
The request is delivered against signature or sent to your home address. They wait two working days for the explanatory note, then they issue an act of refusal.
❗ You cannot ask for an explanatory note while the employee is on sick leave; you must wait until the sheet is closed. Otherwise, the court will cancel the dismissal - Ruling of the Supreme Court No. 69-KG20-3.
3. Next, an order is issued to impose a disciplinary sanction in the form of dismissal.
Unified form of dismissal order No. T-8
The order is issued no later than a month from the date of detection of truancy and six months from the date of the truancy itself. The day of detection - when the employee’s immediate superior found out about absenteeism, and this is not necessarily the owner of the business - clause 34 of Plenum Resolution No. 2.
❗ Days of sick leave and vacation do not count towards the monthly period. Therefore, in reality, it may turn out that the deadline for dismissal for absenteeism will be greatly delayed.
4. The employee is introduced to the dismissal order - against signature. There are three days for this. If the employee does not want to sign the order, they call witnesses and write a statement of refusal.
The day of the order is the last working day of the dismissed person. On this day, he is given a work book, the rest of his salary and compensation for unused vacation.
Article: How to calculate vacation compensation
