In July and August of this 12 months, I had the unbelievable expertise of taking seven weeks off of labor — totally paid. I benefited from our beneficiant sabbatical coverage (extra on that beneath) to take a break from work.
It had been a very busy 12 months, and I had two new teammates take part February after which a 3rd in April who all reported to me— so the timing was tight right here to get everybody onboarded and operational earlier than I went on sabbatical. I used to be fairly nervous about taking such an prolonged interval off of labor after simply having introduced on three new teammates. However, ultimately, my being away ended up empowering my teammates to degree up their possession and highlighting processes I didn’t must be concerned in.
Taking time away from work may be daunting, however in my expertise, it can be immensely worthwhile. It supplied a chance for development for each my workforce and me.
Right here’s extra about sabbaticals at Buffer, how I set issues up whereas I used to be out, and why it ended up understanding so nicely.
Our sabbatical coverage
Since 2019, Buffer has supplied sabbaticals to all teammates who’ve been on the workforce for 5 or extra years. Teammates are invited to take a totally paid sabbatical and spend it nonetheless they’d like — engaged on a aspect venture, touring, serving to a non-profit, spending time with household, reaching a life purpose, or one thing else totally.
We provide six weeks of sabbatical for each 5 years at Buffer, plus each further 12 months with out taking a sabbatical provides one other week (maxing out at 12 weeks).
February marked six years at Buffer for me, so I used to be eligible for a seven-week sabbatical. I’m certainly one of 22 individuals who have taken sabbaticals from their time at Buffer because the apply was first put into place in 2019.
How I arrange the workforce for assist whereas I used to be out
I run the communications and content material workforce, comprised of two content material writers (you’ve seen Tami and Umber on the weblog) and one social media supervisor (you’ve seen Mitra all over the place however would possibly keep in mind Instagram and TikTok movies particularly). Then we work with a number of companies as nicely.
Everybody’s sabbatical planning was barely totally different, however for me, I centered on my three teammates first. Right here’s how they had been supported:
1:1s with one other supervisor
I do weekly 1:1s with every individual, and in my absence, they did bi-weekly 1:1s with one other advertising supervisor to proceed getting that assist.
Connecting with my supervisor
In some corporations, “skip degree 1:1s” are widespread as a approach for teammates to attach with their supervisor’s supervisor. My supervisor is our CEO, Joel, and whereas I used to be away, he did a gaggle name with the workforce to examine in and see how they had been doing. This isn’t fairly a skip degree however the same thought.
Peer critiques
Our unique course of for weblog content material was that every part was being run by me for modifying. We had peer critiques instituted as an alternative for all weblog posts in my absence. Social posts usually are not all reviewed, however there are a number of choices for peer critiques on social posts across the firm when wanted.
Masterminds
New mastermind pairings had been kicked off round this time, and every teammate was paired with a mastermind associate. These are enjoyable pairings meant to attach two teammates who don’t typically work collectively to talk about challenges and lend a distinct perspective. They evolve so much as the connection deepens. Right here’s extra on how we run masterminds at Buffer.
Passing off factors of contact
In every of my company relationships, there was often one different one that was already accustomed to how we collaborated. In order that individual stepped as much as grow to be the first level of contact, or else I assigned a number of folks to be factors of contact so our companions on the company would have choices.
Documentation for everybody
Final however not least, we have now a very nice inner handbook and advertising wiki on our workforce. Over the previous 12 months, I’ve been constructing methods in order that we frequently doc processes and finest practices in Notion and typically embody a Loom video.
Earlier than leaving on sabbatical, I frequently requested teammates questions like:
- What don’t you already know sufficient about?
- What are you apprehensive would go fallacious?
- Is there any course of you’re uncertain of?
- Are you assured you possibly can entry the entire info you want?
Then I recorded movies or wrote up documentation for something that got here up.
I had already written down all the opposite documentation round utilizing particular instruments, however I checked that over a number of instances to make sure it included every part I assumed related.
After many months of setting every part up for achievement, I felt full confidence in my workforce. So I set my out-of-office reply and logged out of all of my communications instruments for seven weeks to be fully disconnected from work.
The constructive advantages of being away for 7 weeks
I used to be anticipating issues to go nicely as a result of I felt everybody had ready, and I knew there was a stable assist system in place, however I used to be shocked at simply how nicely issues went with out me there. (Possibly I ought to go on sabbatical yearly? 😆)
I noticed a number of constructive advantages.
My workforce grew a ton throughout this era
There’s nothing like eradicating the short intestine examine with somebody to degree up your decision-making expertise. I heard throughout the board that making selections with out my enter helped construct confidence. I imagine this was particularly helpful as a result of, as a brand new teammate, the apply of operating issues by me was initially constructed into the onboarding. As soon as the behavior is created, it may be difficult to interrupt. This led to every individual taking over extra possession over their space and initiatives.
We questioned our processes
After I returned, one of many questions I requested in our first 1:1 with every individual was what processes we would need to rethink. In the long run, issues I had been proudly owning that I handed to others briefly ended up typically staying with that individual as a result of the brand new course of made extra sense. For instance, in a single case, it was a brand new major contact for an company we collaborate with, and one other occasion was that peer critiques ended up being each enjoyable and useful, so we stored these.
We additionally realized there hadn’t been a number of collaboration constructed into the content material calendar earlier than I left. I had been planning every part whereas my teammates had been nonetheless onboarding. Now that everybody was onboarded, we began an editorial evaluate the place the content material calendar planning is rather more collaborative.
It surfaced unclear areas
Being away additionally surfaced areas that had been unclear and that weren’t documented. All of them ended up being tiny issues (like choosing the proper cowl picture for weblog posts), however nonetheless, it meant there was room for enchancment in communication and documentation round these issues.
Finally, selections had been made with out me resulting in teammates being extra empowered inside their roles and areas, and our workforce processes had been improved and felt rather more strong. I couldn’t be happier with all of this!
The place might issues have gone higher?
I questioned, “might issues have gone higher?” and I feel there’s all the time room for enchancment. However the largest factor was guaranteeing my workforce had sufficient connections throughout the corporate. They’re linked to one another and others on our Advertising workforce, however for brand new teammates at a distant firm, it may be difficult to really feel linked. With no supervisor there to assist make connections, that may be much more tough. So if I might change one factor, it will be guaranteeing that there have been much more factors of connection between my teammates and different leaders at Buffer.
Over to you
Have you ever taken time without work work as a brand new supervisor? How did it go? Or do you will have any questions on our sabbatical coverage at Buffer? Ship us a tweet; we’d like to proceed the dialog!
