What Your End-of-Year Holidays Reveal About How You Delegate

Table of contents

1. The holiday test: why the laptop comes with you
2. Signs that you delegate badly
3. What you can hand over, and what you keep
4. How to delegate in four steps before you leave
5. The one-page handover that saves you the calls
6. While you are away: deciding what counts as an emergency
7. Back at work: keeping what was delegated
8. Conclusion
9. FAQ

Every year, the same scene plays out in many teams. In early December, the manager looks at the diary. Everything converges on the same dates: budgets to close, clients to deliver, reviews to finish. So the manager decides to “keep an eye” on emails over the holidays. Just in case.

That “just in case” comes at a price. First, it eats into the rest of the person who leaves. Second, it sends the team a clear message, even if nobody says it out loud: without me, nothing holds.

Yet most of the time, the team could hold. Nobody simply gave it the framework, the information and the permission to do so. In other words, what looks like a holiday problem is really a delegation problem. Good news, though: there are about six weeks left before Christmas to learn how to delegate what needs to be delegated.

The holiday test: why the laptop comes with you

Two weeks away works like a real-life test. The rest of the year, a manager who keeps everything can compensate. They answer fast, settle questions in the corridor and catch up in the evening. On holiday, however, that safety net disappears. As a result, the gaps show up all at once.

What SME managers say

The issue affects many Swiss companies. The Swiss Confederation’s SME portal even devotes a page (in French) to the art of delegating. Experts quoted there point to two recurring obstacles. First, the belief that you will do it better yourself. Second, the idea that delegating takes too much time. Both beliefs seem reasonable in the short term. Even so, they gradually lock you into the role of the person who does everything.

The real cost of “I’ll just check my emails”

Staying reachable seems harmless. However, a single look at your inbox is often enough to restart the mental machine: a file that is stuck, a reply to write, a worry about January. Moreover, the team adapts to this behaviour. If you reply on 27 December, they will write to you on the 28th. Your availability then becomes a habit rather than an exception.

Signs that you delegate badly

Poor delegation is not always visible day to day. In fact, it shows in small signals that end up feeling normal. Before preparing your departure, take a quick inventory. If several of these situations sound familiar, the team will struggle to cope without you:

• people come to you for decisions they could make on their own;
• some files only move forward when you are in the office;
• you alone know the real status of a client or a project;
• you regularly take back a task you had handed over, because “it will be quicker”;
• every absence ends with a pile of pending topics waiting for your return.

The fourth point deserves particular attention. Taking a task back, even with good intentions, destroys trust. Indeed, the employee concludes that their work counts for little, since you always have the final word. On this point, the experts on the SME portal are clear: once a task is handed over, it stays with the employee, unless there is a major problem.

Finally, watch your own reactions. Picture a colleague answering your best client alone. If that thought makes you uneasy, the unease tells you something. Either the person is not prepared enough, or you lack trust. In both cases, you can work on it before the holidays.

What you can hand over, and what you keep

Delegating does not mean giving everything away. Some tasks belong to the core of the manager’s role and stay with you. Others, on the other hand, stay with you out of habit far more than necessity. The table below helps you sort them.

This table often holds a surprise: the list of what really has to stay with you fits in a few lines. Everything else, you can delegate, provided you prepare it well.

How to delegate in four steps before you leave

When it comes to how to delegate well, method matters as much as intention. A delegation improvised the day before you leave produces the opposite of what you want. The person does not know how far they can go, so they call you. Here is a four-step approach, to start at least three weeks before your time off.

1. Choose the task and the person

Start from each person’s strengths rather than their availability. The least busy colleague is not necessarily the best fit. Also ask the opposite question: for whom is this task a real chance to learn? Well chosen, a delegated task motivates, because it brings meaning and recognition.

2. Frame the result, not the method

First explain the purpose of the task, the expected result and the level of quality. Then separate what is non-negotiable from what remains open. The deadline, the budget and the quality form the fixed framework. How to get there, on the other hand, belongs to the employee. The SME portal experts recommend exactly this distinction. Accepting a method other than yours, for an equivalent result, is also the hardest step for many managers.

3. Set the level of autonomy

Not every delegated task calls for the same freedom. For each topic, therefore, state one of three options. The person decides alone, decides and then informs you, or prepares a decision that someone else will approve. This may sound formal. Yet it prevents most holiday calls, because everyone knows in advance what they can settle.

4. Plan the checkpoints

Before you leave, set one or two milestones: a first trial in real conditions, then a quick review. For example, let the person handle a client alone for a week in December, while you are still around. That way, you can adjust in time without taking back control. On the day you leave, delegation is no longer a discovery, but a habit that already works.

The one-page handover that saves you the calls

Most holiday calls have a mundane cause: a piece of information was missing. A good handover note solves this. Besides, it does not need to be long. On the contrary, a single page reviewed together beats a twenty-page file that nobody will open.

To be useful, the note should answer a few simple questions:

• Who does what: for each open file, the name of the person taking it over;
• Where things stand: the real status of each topic, with the next planned step;
• Who decides: the level of autonomy agreed, and who to contact beyond it;
• Where to find information: shared folders, key contacts and reference documents;
• What can wait: the list of topics that will resume when you are back.

Many managers forget that last point. Yet it reassures the team as much as it reassures you. Writing down “this topic will wait until 5 January” frees colleagues from the temptation to email you.

Finally, do not just send the note by email. Take thirty minutes to go through it with the people involved. In this way, the conversation clears up doubts. It also lets everyone confirm the task they are taking on. To organise these last weeks without drowning, our tips for managing your time and priorities can also help.

While you are away: deciding what counts as an emergency

Even the best delegation leaves one question open: what if something serious happens? Being reachable at all times solves nothing. It is better to define in advance what a real emergency is, along with the single channel through which it can reach you.

A simple rule, written down and shared

To begin with, agree with the team on two or three specific situations that justify a call. For example: a major client in trouble, a security incident, a serious problem affecting a person. Everything else waits for your return, or goes through the designated person. Then choose one single channel, such as the phone. You can then switch off your email notifications with a clear mind.

This rule meets a real need. According to a survey by Eurofound, the EU agency for working conditions, eight employees out of ten regularly receive work messages outside working hours. This also holds in companies with a right-to-disconnect policy. A rule alone is therefore not enough: the manager has to follow it too.

What Swiss law says

Unlike some neighbouring countries, Switzerland has no “right to disconnect” written into law. However, the Code of Obligations clearly protects holidays. Its Article 329d, for instance, forbids replacing them with money as long as the employment relationship lasts. The message from lawmakers is plain: holidays are for rest, not for working differently.

Leading by example

Finally, your behaviour weighs more than your instructions. Swissmem makes this point in its advice on disconnecting during holidays (in French): when managers stay reachable, their teams follow suit. Conversely, a manager who truly switches off gives the team permission to do the same during their own time off.

Back at work: keeping what was delegated

Coming back from holiday calls for vigilance. Swamped by the pile of messages, many managers instinctively take back every file they handed over. Within a few days, the delegation built in December fades away. Yet this is precisely the moment when it can become permanent.

Start with a short review with each person who stepped in. Ask what worked well, what got in their way and which decisions they made. If something went wrong, go back to the framework rather than looking for someone to blame. The aim is to find a better solution, not a culprit.

Then ask yourself a simple question: among the tasks handed over during the holidays, which ones can stay with that person for good? Often, the answer is “most of them”. You will then have gained far more than two weeks of rest. You will have freed up time for the part of the role only you can play: vision, coaching and difficult decisions.

Choosing the right person, framing a task, setting autonomy and following up without taking back control: these skills can be learned. Our Delegate to gain efficiency training covers them in one day, in Geneva, in Lausanne or online.

Conclusion

Taking your laptop on holiday is no proof of dedication. More often than not, it betrays unfinished delegation. The end of the year therefore offers a rare opportunity: a test on a fixed date, with a few weeks to prepare.

Start by sorting what you keep and what you hand over. Then frame each task, set everyone’s autonomy, write a one-page handover and define what a real emergency is. Once back, keep what worked. Learning how to delegate before the holidays means giving two gifts at once: rest for you, and autonomy for the team. More resources for managers are waiting in our Soft Skills catalogue.

FAQ

Why is it so hard to delegate?
Two beliefs hold most managers back: thinking you will do it better yourself, and that delegating takes too much time. True in the short term, they end up making you indispensable for everything.

How long before your holidays should you start to delegate?
Ideally at least three weeks. That leaves time for a trial in real conditions while you are still there, then a correction before you leave.

What should you never delegate?
Tasks that belong directly to your role as a manager: assessing people, sensitive HR matters and certain decisions that commit the company beyond an agreed threshold.

Can an employer require an employee to stay reachable on holiday?
In Switzerland, holidays are for rest and cannot be replaced with money during the employment relationship (Art. 329d CO). For a specific case, check your contract and your collective agreement.

How do you avoid taking back a delegated task when you return?
Hold a review with the person and go back to the agreed framework if something went wrong. Then decide together what you will delegate for good, and how to delegate it next time.