Qui Pus Info

Updated September 2026: in September 2019 another manager asked whether I could take on a further opportunity with a difficult team, two weeks before my planned vacation. I have rewritten it into advice on responding to a new assignment when your leave is close.

I was waiting for a painful opportunity to close when another manager in my team called to check my bandwidth. He wanted me on one more opportunity with the same difficult team. I told him I was taking a long vacation in two weeks and would not take calls during it. He then suggested a smaller, proactive opportunity closing the following month that should need little effort.

How should you respond to a new assignment before leave?

Lead with your dates and your current load, as I did. That turns the conversation from "will you take this?" into "what fits around your absence?", which is the right question. Most managers would rather know now than discover the clash when you are away.

Is a "low effort" opportunity really low effort?

Sometimes. Proactive proposals, prepared before a client asks, often have soft deadlines and smaller scope. But "only a little effort" is an estimate made by someone else. Before agreeing, ask what the deliverable is, when it is due, and who else is on it. If the due date falls after your return and someone can cover questions while you are away, it may genuinely fit.

Can you say no to a team you do not want to work with?

You can say what you prefer, but "not that team" is rarely accepted on its own. It lands better with specifics: repeated late-night requests, scope changes without notice, or escalations that should have been handled differently. Raise that with your manager separately, with examples, rather than in the moment of allocation.

What should you agree before you go?

• Which opportunities you are on, and which you are not, in writing.
• Who covers each one during your leave.
• That you will not be contacted except for a defined emergency.
• What you will pick up on the day you return.

What if the new work starts before you leave?

Do the setup work that makes the handover easy: kickoff notes, a list of open questions and the location of every file. Two focused days of setup are worth more than a week of half-attention, and they protect your leave far better than trying to keep up from a distance.

Keep reading

• Back From a Long Vacation to No Work: What to Do
• Working Under a Manager Who Won't Back the Team
• Endless Iterations? Get a Clear Submission Date

Updated September 2026: this 2019 post described telling a teammate who was leaving about my top rating, and her surprise that I had not been promoted. I have rewritten it into a discussion of whether to share your performance rating at work, and what to do with a colleague's career advice.

In the last days before my teammate moved to a new team, we talked about her interview and her new role. She encouraged me to move too, towards work with onsite opportunities. I said I wanted to stay at least until my promotion. When I told her I had received the top rating the previous year, she was surprised and said my promotion was surely due.

Should you share your rating with colleagues?

With a trusted colleague, especially one who is leaving, it can be useful. It gives you an outside view of whether your treatment is normal. With your current team, be more careful. Ratings are often calibrated against each other within a team, and sharing them can create resentment or awkwardness that lingers long after the cycle.

What can you learn from a colleague's reaction?

A surprised reaction is data. If someone who knows the company's promotion patterns thinks you should already have been promoted, it is worth asking your manager directly about your timeline. It does not prove anything by itself, but it is a prompt to get a clear answer rather than wait.

Should you follow a colleague who changes teams?

Only for your own reasons. Colleagues who move often encourage others to follow, and their information about interviews and new roles is valuable. Ask them about the kind of work, the manager and the growth path in the new team. Then compare that with your own goals, whether that is a promotion, onsite exposure, better work or simply stability.

Is waiting for a promotion a good reason to stay?

It can be, if the promotion is realistically close and the rest of the job is acceptable. It stops being a good reason when the promise keeps moving. Ask your manager for the specific cycle in which you will be considered and what is needed. If that answer is vague twice in a row, weigh the move your colleague suggested more seriously.

What should you keep private?

Salary figures, other people's ratings and anything shared with you in confidence. Your own rating is yours to share, but think about who you are telling and why. A departing friend offering advice is one of the safer people to tell.

Keep reading

• Back From a Long Vacation to No Work: What to Do
• Asked to Run a Team Knowledge Session? How to Prepare
• Blocked on Client Input: Handling a Stalled Deliverable

Updated September 2026: in May 2019 a teammate asked me to run a session for the whole team on the day before my planned vacation, and I reluctantly agreed. I have rewritten it into a guide to preparing a team knowledge session quickly, especially on material you last touched a year ago.

I had planned my leave carefully, and then a teammate asked me to present to the team on the approach I had used for a proposal a year earlier. My promotion was due, so I was careful about how I responded, and I agreed. It meant working the day before my vacation and re-reading documents to remember a process I had half forgotten.

Should you agree to run a team session?

Usually yes, because it is visible, useful work that managers remember at review time. But you can agree to the session and still negotiate the date. "Happy to do it; can we schedule it for the week after I return?" is a reasonable reply that most teammates will accept. Saying yes to the content does not require saying yes to the timing.

How do you prepare quickly on old material?

• Start from the final deliverable, not your working notes. It shows what actually mattered.
• Write the approach as five or six steps before making any slides.
• Pick one worked example and walk through it, rather than covering every variation.
• List what you would do differently now. It is often the most valuable part for the audience.

How long should the deck be?

Short. Eight to twelve slides is plenty for a thirty to forty-five minute session: the problem, the approach, the example, lessons and questions. Keep detailed templates and documents as links rather than slides. People remember the reasoning, then look up the detail when they need it.

How do you run the session itself?

Open with why the approach was needed, then walk through the example, and leave at least a third of the time for questions. Record it if your team allows, and share the deck and recording afterwards. A recorded session keeps paying off, because new joiners can watch it without asking you to repeat it.

What if it clashes with leave you already planned?

Say so clearly and early. If the session truly cannot move, prepare a short deck and hand over the presentation to a colleague, or record a walkthrough before you leave. Giving up the day before a planned holiday should be a choice you make, not an assumption others make for you.

Keep reading

• Asked to Take a New Project Just Before Your Leave?
• Blocked on Client Input: Handling a Stalled Deliverable
• Back From a Long Vacation to No Work: What to Do

Updated September 2026: this 2019 post described coming back from a long new-year vacation to find my whole team had no work, followed by an unexpected request to share a capability deck. I have rewritten it as advice for the first days back after a long break when nothing is waiting for you.

After a long vacation at the start of 2019, I went back to the office refreshed and expecting a full plate. Instead there was nothing, not just for me but for the whole team. The next day I came in anxious to be assigned something, and the only request was to share a capability deck with a colleague.

Is an empty first week back a bad sign?

Rarely. In January, and after other holiday periods, clients and onsite teams restart slowly, and new opportunities take a few weeks to reach offshore teams. If the whole team is quiet, it is the season, not your standing. It becomes worth worrying about only if others are busy and you are not.

What should you do on the first day back?

• Tell your manager you are back and available, in writing, and ask what is expected in the coming weeks.
• Clear the backlog you left: close out any items from before your leave and file their final versions.
• Read what changed: team announcements, policy updates and any client news you missed.

Why do small, unexpected requests matter?

A request to share a capability deck can feel like busywork, but it tells you something: someone is preparing to pitch. It is often the first sign of an opportunity on its way. Share the deck promptly, ask what it is for, and offer to tailor it. That is a simple way to be first in line when the real work arrives.

How do you use a slow start productively?

Update the material you will need later: refresh your standard slides with current figures, tidy the team's repository, or finish a certification you put off during the busy months. Work done in a quiet week pays back when the pace picks up, which it almost always does within a few weeks.

What if the quiet period drags on?

After two or three weeks with little work, ask your manager directly about the pipeline and whether you should be looking at other accounts. Many companies have formal processes for unallocated staff, and it is better to understand yours early than be surprised by it.

That first quiet week in 2019 was a reset rather than a warning. The request for a capability deck, small as it was, was the thread worth pulling.

Keep reading

• When a New Request Arrives on an Old Email Thread
• Asked to Take a New Project Just Before Your Leave?
• Building a Proposal Repository That Makes Reuse Fast