I was out of the office last Friday and Monday, and this absence reminded me of the concept I call the PTO Penalty. For those without a traditional job, PTO stands for Paid Time Off. 

The PTO Penalty has two parts. The first part is the frenzy leading up to time off where everyone needs something from you “before you leave.” This part pales in comparison to the second part, which is the nightmare that awaits you upon your return. The nightmare manifests itself in the form of emails in Outlook.

The two primary factors that determine the severity of the PTO Penalty are the number of days off and job roles and responsibilities. The PTO Penalty for one day off is annoying, but I can recover relatively quickly. With two or more days off, it’s a different ballgame. I have not experienced the PTO Penalty in a while, even with extended time off, because my role was limited. The last time I experienced a major PTO Penalty I was in a manager role. It is no surprise, therefore, that the PTO Penalty has resurfaced now that I’m in a manager role once again.

Is there a way to avoid or mitigate the effects of the PTO Penalty?

In my first role as a manager, I despised the PTO Penalty so much that I avoided it by simply not taking any time off. I do not recommend this to anyone. You need time off otherwise you will eventually burn out. 

In the same manager role, the PTO Penalty was so bad that I took a radical approach. In my Out-of-Office message (also known as Automatic Replies), I indicated the usual information about how long I would be out of the office and whom to contact in my absence. Here is the controversial part. I added the following line: “All emails from people outside my team/department will be automatically deleted.” The outcry from the people firmly entrenched in the company culture of email was loud and sustained. “How dare you delete my email!” “You can’t do that!” Sure I can. And I did. 

Here is what I actually did. I set up an Outlook rule that allowed any emails from my boss, my fellow managers, and my team members to reach my inbox. If an email was not from any of those people, it was automatically moved to the Deleted Items folder. This rule kept my inbox tidy. I still looked at the unread emails in the Deleted Items folder. There were only 1-2% of them that I really needed to read. 

When I started reviewing my emails, I also made the classic mistake of reading through emails oldest to newest. This caused me to reply or take action on items that were already handled. Now I read the newest emails first and prioritize accordingly.

It is interesting how when you change expectations, you change behaviors. People were shocked when they read that their emails would be deleted. They were forced to reach out to someone else or wait until I return. Companies need to avoid single points of failure that cause work to stop just because one person is out of the office.