Daniele Catalanotto
Daniele's Principles Drafts
May 19, 2022

Don’t overwhelm me when I come back from holidays

A Service Design Principle for calmer work tools


The context

I was inspired by the Colin and Samir episode where they propose that the analytics of youtube allows people to take a break.


A screenshot of the video of Colin and Samir where they show their idea for a new feature in the Youtube Studio settings.

Watch me think out loud about this new principle



Side notes

This is the first draft of this Service Design Principle. Once adapted and refined multiple time, this principle will be part of the book "Service Design Principles 201-300"

7 comments
Patrick Marcelissen
May 19, 2022
For me to watch the video, it takes too much time ;-). I will wait for the writen version.
Daniele Catalanotto
Jun 4, 2022
Thanks for the feedback Patrick :) I'm playing around with the format as you see ;) 
But rest assured, there will be a written version in the next iteration ;) 
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 20, 2022

The second draft of this Service Design Principle

Imagine this. You are a sales guy.

You just come back from holidays. You feel refreshed and energized! As part of your work, you open the spreadsheet where you can see who are the next prospects you need to call. But there you get greeted with this information: these two last weeks you were way below your average sales number! Worth compared to the previous year during the same period you really suck!

All the energy you stockpiled during your vacation has now left you. You feel demoralized and shitty. Until you remember: "hey, that's normal! I was on holiday!"

There is valuable and motivating information to have when you are in a daily work setting, like stats that show you how you perform at the moment compared to last year. But sometimes this information can become quite overwhelming right after your holidays.

Being reminded that your holiday put you behind your typical work goals isn't the best way to be greeted after a holiday.

As you return from holidays, coworkers tend to jump right at you with the latest emergency instead of letting you ease into the work slowly.

It feels as if our work tools and colleagues want us to feel guilty about taking time off.

Meet Olivier. He is a guy who understands this well and uses a small hack.

He adds one or two buffer days between his holiday return and his official return. For example, in his automatic out-of-office email reply, you can read: "I'm back Tuesday 13th of October".

But in reality, Olivier is back at work on Monday the 12th. So he just takes that time solo to get up to speed more calmly and focused. Nobody will call him on Monday.

So on Tuesday, everyone who needs something urgent from him can come to him. Olivier has already handled what is essential to him. Olivier helps others not to overwhelm him when he comes back from holidays.

I believe we can design our services and tools to do the same thing as Olivier for our teams and users.

So let me ask you.

What can you change in your work setting so that others do not overwhelm you when you return from vacation? What can you change in your service to not suck all users' energy after their holidays?

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the second draft of this Service Design Principle.
  • Once improved even more, this principle might be part of the book "Service Design Principles 201-300"
  • As always, feel free to share comments, feedback or personal stories to improve this principle.
Show 1 more...
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 29, 2022
Thanks for the clarification question JJ.

Yes JJ, he is paid for his day off "solo work" where he catches up after his holiday ;) And it's extremly positive for his mental health, the productivity of the company and even the colleagues as they get more of his attention when he is really back for them.

Indeed, that feeling of "it's not worth to go on holiday" is something that we as service creators can work on. This story shows that there are simple solution to change it. And as studies suggest, people who take real vacations are then more productive. So it's a big win. See this principle for more details.
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 29, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

You're back from holidays. You feel fresh and with lots of energy! Nice! A colleague comes to you running. He says, "Finally, you're back! We have an emergency!". You help him fix his issue. Then comes another colleague and another one. Add to this your email inbox with tons of messages and notifications. Now, all the energy you stockpiled in your vacation says "bye-bye"... 
You think: "Is it worth going on vacation?" (1)

It's as if our work tools and colleagues want us to feel guilty about taking time off.

Meet Olivier, a good friend who uses a small hack to avoid this. He adds a day between his holiday return and his official return.

For example, in his automatic out-of-office email reply, he says: "I'm back Tuesday 13th of October". But, in reality, he is back at work on Monday the 12th. So Olivier takes that solo day to get up to speed with calm and focus.
Then on Tuesday, everyone who needs something urgent from him can come to him. Olivier has already handled what is essential to him. Olivier is smart. He helps others not to overwhelm him when he returns from holidays (2).
We can design our services and tools to do as Olivier does for our teams and users. So let me ask you.

What can you change in your work setting to not overwhelm people returning from vacation? What can you improve in your service to not suck all your users' energy after their holidays?

Footnotes

(1) This thought can have dramatic consequences, as shown in the following comment from community member JJ Turner. “Some people in the US don’t take much vacation because the work is crushing when they return. Or they kinda go on vacation but continue working remotely so they won’t fall behind.

(2) It’s also positive for the productivity of the company and even his colleagues as they get more of his attention when he is 100% up to speed and there for them.

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the third draft of this Service Design Principle.
  • I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 35 % compared to its previous version.
  • I removed one part of the story about the work tools to focus more on the story from Olivier. I feel this renewed focus gives more clarity to the principle.
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 31, 2022

The fourth draft of this Service Design Principle

You’re back from holidays. You feel fresh and with lots of energy! Nice! A colleague comes to you running. He says, “Finally, you’re back! We have an emergency!”. You help him fix his issue. Then comes another colleague and another one. Add to this your email inbox with tons of messages and notifications.

Now, all the energy you stockpiled in your vacation says “bye-bye”... You ask yourself: “Was it worth going on vacation?” (1)

My friend Olivier uses a small hack to avoid this. He adds a day between his return to work and his return for all his colleagues. For example, in his automatic out-of-office email reply, he says: “I’m back Tuesday 13th of October”. But, in reality, he’s already working on Monday. Olivier uses that solo day to get up to speed with calm and focus.

Then on Tuesday, he’s calm and ready to handle the urgencies (2)

So let me ask.

What can you change in your work tools and setting to create a calm return from vacation? What can you improve in your service to not suck all your users’ energy after their holidays?

Footnotes

(1) This thought can have dramatic consequences as shown in the following comment from community member JJ Turner. “Some people in the US don’t take much vacation because the work is crushing when they return. Or they kinda go on vacation, but continue working remotely so they won’t fall behind.

(2) It’s also positive for the productivity of the company and even his colleagues as they get more of his attention when he is 100% up to speed and there for them.

(3) See the principle “Let me take holidays” for more details about why time-offs are so essential both for the workers companies.

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the fourth draft of this Service Design Principle.
  • I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 25 % compared to its previous version.
  • I removed one part of the story about the work tools to focus more on the story from Olivier. I feel this renewed focus gives more clarity to the principle.