In the immortal words of The Go-Go's, vacation, all I ever wanted…
Taking a vacation (or staycation) is a great antidote to burnout, but especially in the age of hybrid and remote work, it can be difficult to unplug. Internally, we utilize OOO planning pages to offer stakeholders and collaborators visibility, ensure work moves forward, and most importantly, unplug from work with peace of mind.
We poked around in Confluence (#WorkOpenPerks) and drew on our own experiences to surface the tried and true methods of Atlassians for successfully PTO (not that PTO, the other one – “preparing the others” – thanks to Chris for teaching us this perfect acronym). With an OOO plan in Confluence, your stakeholders can stay informed of the status of work in flight, visualize outstanding tasks, and give async feedback while you’re away. Without further ado, our tips and tricks for creating an OOO plan that will make your coworkers say “get outta town!”.
Tip #1
If a killer OOO plan is created but no one but the creator views the Confluence page, does it really exist? 🤔 We’d say no. If you want to ensure your teammates actually read your OOO plan (versus opening the @ mention notification and proceeding to close the tab without consuming any content), add a header image. Confluence pages with header images get 12x more engagement than those without! 🤯
Tip #2
Utilize an info macro to provide summary information at a glance such as:
The dates you’ll be OOO
Your contact information in case of emergency
A summary of projects in flight
Tip #3
Use a table to outline projects in-flight along with details on their status and who to contact in your absence.
Tip #4
Want to ensure your OOO plan reaches relevant stakeholders? 👀 @ mention them so they’re notified!
Tip #5
Use an Action item to assign a teammate an outstanding task – be sure to @ mention them and insert a Date if the task is time-bound.
Tip #6
Reduce context-switching by embedding relevant Confluence pages to bring your teammates up to speed with rich context – without ever leaving your OOO plan. 🙌
Tip #7
Give your typical away message an upgrade by linking your OOO plan. Better yet, utilize Confluence’s integrations with Slack or Microsoft Teams to share your plan in relevant communication channels. You can also use embed the page in related Trello cards and Jira issues for visibility, or in your team’s OOO notification page if you utilize one.
Bonus: If your organization uses a link shortener, create a custom link to your OOO plan that can be easily posted in your Slack or Teams status.
Tip #8
Use the status macro to quickly communicate where a project stands.
Bonus: Use the Jira roadmap macro or link a Trello board for a dynamic overview of how a project is tracking. 💯
We want to hear from you (and send you some supplies for making the most of your time OOO)! Share your best tip for going OOO with Confluence in the comments of this post or show us how you’re unplugging by sharing a picture on social of recent time you’ve enjoyed offline with hashtag #OOOwithConfluence and tag us @Confluence. 😎
Meg Bailey
Customer Marketing Manager
NY, USA
3 accepted answers
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