The colleague is away for two weeks, but the inbox remains full. In addition to one's own tasks, approvals, customer inquiries and appointments are added. A Leave cover at work does not therefore work according to the principle "You just do everything." It needs a limited task list, clear priorities, appropriate authorizations and realistic working hours.
Especially in July, many absences coincide with ongoing projects and understaffed teams. Those who take on cover duties can demonstrate responsibility and learn new processes. Without a clear handover, however, there is a risk of prolonged interruptions, unpaid overtime and decisions for which the necessary information or permissions are missing. This guide helps employees and managers organize cover in a planned way. Legal details may vary depending on the employment contract, collective agreement and industry; this article does not replace individual legal advice.
Holiday cover is capacity planning, not just knowledge transfer
A handover answers the question of how important work continues during an absence. However, it does not create additional hours. If a person retains their normal tasks and is simultaneously expected to take on the full workload of an absent colleague, a prioritization decision is missing.
This is not just a comfort issue. The Austrian Labour Inspectorate cites high time pressure, work overload, lack of information, tight staffing levels, and frequent interruptions as typical factors of psychological stress. Companies must take such working conditions into account as part of the workplace evaluation of psychological stress.
The right starting question is therefore not: "Who can do everything in addition?" It is: "Which tasks must continue, which can wait, and what capacity is actually available?"
Six questions before agreeing
Before you take on a cover role, you should clarify six points with the manager or the absent person:
- Timeframe: From when to when does the substitution apply, and is there a handover day before and after the vacation?
- Mandatory tasks: Which tasks must be completed during the absence?
- Priorities: Which personal tasks will be postponed, reduced, or delegated to someone else?
- Authorities: Which decisions, approvals, or commitments are you allowed to make yourself?
- Escalation: Who is reachable for exceptions, conflicts, security issues, or larger amounts?
- Working hours: Is overtime foreseeable, and how will it be ordered, recorded, and compensated?
A clear answer protects both sides. 'Just check the inbox' is not a job description. 'Respond to standard inquiries within two business days, forward complaints to the team lead, and do not authorize discounts' is workable.
The handover list: What really needs to be documented
A good handover is short enough to be used and specific enough to avoid follow-up questions. For each case it should contain at least the following information:
| Field | Content | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Task | Specific desired outcome | Confirm delivery date, not just 'Project X' |
| Deadline | Date and actual urgency | By Tuesday at 12:00, because shipping takes place after that |
| Status | What's completed and what's outstanding | Quote sent, response pending |
| Contact | Responsible internal and external person | Subject-matter question to Purchasing, not to Customer Service |
| Authority | What may be decided independently | Approval up to €500; above that, team lead |
| Documents | Reliable storage location | Specify project folder and current version |
| Risk | What happens in case of delay or error | Contract deadline, security impact, or customer impact |
| Next step | A specific action | Follow up on Wednesday if no response |
Passwords do not belong in handover lists or unprotected messages. Access should be provided through shared accounts, roles, and delegation functions. Sharing personal logins makes activities hard to trace and creates unnecessary security risks.
Prioritize before your vacation starts
Split tasks into three groups:
- Must run: statutory or contractual deadlines, safety-related activities, payment runs, critical customer contacts and operationally necessary approvals.
- Should run: Tasks with tangible benefits that are completed when capacity allows.
- Can wait: Optimizations, internal cleanup work, non-urgent meetings and projects without immediate follow-up.
After that, every must-do task needs an assigned person and an escalation path. A long list without prioritization only shifts the decision to the most hectic moment. It also makes sense to set a capacity limit, for example: a maximum of two hours of cover work per day. If this is exceeded, the manager re-evaluates priorities.
Permissions must match responsibilities
Anyone tasked with delivering a result needs the necessary information and decision-making authority. Typical gaps include missing ordering rights, unclear discount limits, locked folders, or the expectation that a specialist approval be granted without the corresponding qualification.
Clarify in writing:
- Which contracts, orders, or payments may be approved?
- Which statements to customers or authorities are binding?
- Which tasks require the four-eyes principle?
- Which activities may not be performed for safety or qualification reasons?
- Who decides when the responsible manager is also absent?
A delegate authorization does not remove professional limits. Anyone who is neither trained nor authorized for a task should indicate that in advance and not only after an error. Special rules also apply to damages in the employment relationship; the Employees' Liability Act (Dienstnehmerhaftpflichtgesetz) takes into account, among other things, fault, responsibility and working conditions. A blanket statement on personal liability is therefore not possible. In the event of a specific incident, the works council, the union or the chamber of labor should be involved promptly.
Clearly separate additional work and overtime
Work performed as cover is regular working time. It is not unpaid simply because it is taken on temporarily or as a collegial favor. Whether additional hours count as extra hours, overtime, flextime credit, or as part of another working-time arrangement depends on the extent of employment and the agreement.
Full-time and maximum working hours
For most adult employees, a standard working time of eight hours per day and 40 hours per week generally applies, although collective agreements or permissible working-time models may differ. The Labour Inspectorate on Daily and Weekly Working Time names as general upper limits twelve hours per day and 60 hours in any single week; in the reference period the weekly average must generally not exceed 48 hours.
These maximum values are not a planning target. Overtime is intended for increased workload and not as a permanent substitute for missing staff. If it leads to more than ten hours of work per day or 50 hours per week, employees may, according to the Labour Inspectorate, refuse it without giving reasons. Even below these limits, legitimate personal interests may oppose it.
Part-time and extra hours
In part-time work, hours beyond the agreed extent are often initially considered extra hours and only when they exceed the applicable normal working time are they regarded as overtime. The Chamber of Labour on part-time work weist auf den grundsätzlich vorgesehenen Mehrarbeitszuschlag von 25 Prozent hin, nennt aber auch Ausnahmen, etwa bei zeitnahem Zeitausgleich oder bestimmten Gleitzeit- und Kollektivvertragsregelungen.
Part-time employees are not automatically the flexible reserve for vacation periods. Important interests such as caregiving responsibilities can argue against additional hours. Those who regularly work more should not only consider individual compensations, but also raise whether the scope of employment and workforce planning still match reality. Guidance for such a conversation is offered by the jobspot.at-guide Negotiating part-time.
Breaks and rest periods remain in place
Even with tight staffing, recovery must not disappear from the schedule. After more than six hours of daily working time, a break of at least 30 minutes is generally required. Between two working days, an uninterrupted rest period of at least eleven hours generally applies. Industry-specific exceptions are possible; the current foundations are explained by the Labour Inspectorate on rest breaks and rest periods.
Record working time yourself
During the substitution, note the start, end, breaks, and additional hours daily. Briefly add which substitution task caused the extra effort. This helps with billing and shows early on if the agreed capacity is insufficient.
Employers must record working hours. According to the Chamber of Labour on working time recording, employees are entitled to a free copy of their records once a month. Keeping your own notes remains useful, however, because collective or employment agreements may provide for short limitation periods for outstanding claims. A simple method is explained in the jobspot.at article Record working hours.
A daily rhythm prevents constant fire-fighting
Instead of processing every new message immediately, a fixed substitution rhythm helps:
- Reserve ten minutes at the start of work for new urgent tasks.
- Determine the three most important results of the day.
- Check backup mailboxes at defined times, unless a real on-call or emergency function has been agreed.
- Collect questions and submit them together to the escalation contact.
- Document decisions briefly so that the return remains traceable.
- At the end of the day, update open risks, not every little open item.
This reduces the number of interruptions. At the same time, it remains visible if more urgent work is constantly coming in than one person can handle. In that case, what is needed is not faster multitasking, but a new prioritization decision.
The absent person is not the emergency solution.
Vacation is paid recovery time. In Austria, employees working a five-day week are generally entitled to five weeks of paid vacation, as oesterreich.gv.at on vacation entitlement summarizes. A poor handover should not be compensated for by the absent person checking messages daily.
If a contact option is agreed upon for a strictly limited exception, it needs clear rules: Who is allowed to call, in what event, via which channel, and what counts as a genuine emergency? "Customer is waiting for an answer" is not sufficient if another person or a later appointment is reasonable.
If you are planning your own leave, you can find the employment law basics in the jobspot.at-article Plan your leave. The organization of cover remains the company's responsibility and must not rest solely on the availability of the employee on leave.
If the burden becomes too great: escalate factually
Don't wait until deadlines are missed or mistakes occur. A substantiated report contains four elements:
As of today, I have two personal mandatory tasks and three urgent cover tasks outstanding. Given the available working time, I can realistically complete three of them. Please decide which two tasks should be postponed or reassigned.
This is not refusal to work, but a transparent capacity report. Avoid blanket statements like 'This can't all be done.' Specify tasks, deadlines, estimated effort and possible consequences. If the situation remains unresolved long-term, a structured conversation, the works council or labour-law advice may be useful. The guide Addressing conflict at work hilft bei der Vorbereitung.
Three typical coverage scenarios
Case 1: Customer service with no authority to issue credits
An employee takes over a complaints inbox but is not allowed to approve credit notes. The handover defines standard responses, a fixed monetary limit, and a team lead for exceptions. This allows her to prepare cases without making binding commitments beyond her authority.
Case 2: Part-time employee covers a payment run
An employee working 25 hours per week is to additionally cover a weekly payment run. Before starting, two routine appointments are rescheduled, a four-eyes principle is put in place, and a three-hour time window is reserved. Additional hours are recorded and compensated according to the applicable regulations.
Case 3: Two vacations overlap
Two specialists are absent from the team at the same time. Instead of assigning both roles entirely to one person, the manager only allocates the critical tasks, pauses an internal project, and appoints an escalation contact from a neighboring department. The gap is treated as a planning issue, not hidden as unpaid extra work.
Checklist for a resilient vacation handover
- The period and return date are documented.
- Must, should, and wait tasks are separated.
- The substitute's own tasks have been visibly reduced or reprioritized.
- Deadlines, status, contacts and next steps are documented.
- Access works without sharing personal passwords.
- Approval, cost, and decision limits are known.
- There are escalation contacts for technical, security, and conflict cases.
- Additional working hours and their compensation are clarified.
- Breaks, daily rest periods, and weekly rest remain scheduled.
- The absent person will only be contacted under a strict emergency rule.
- Decisions and outstanding risks are noted for the return.
- After the vacation, a short handover with improvements takes place.
The handover is part of the substitute's duties.
Plan 20 to 30 minutes for the handover on the first or second working day after the vacation. Discuss completed matters, outstanding deadlines, decisions made, and cases that still require a response. A chronological account of every detail is not necessary.
Also use the handover for a small process improvement: Which information was missing? Which authority was unclear? Which task could have waited? A single concrete change per substitute makes the next absence easier.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to cover every colleague who is on vacation?
That cannot be answered in general. Relevant factors include, among others, the employment contract, the agreed duties, the collective agreement, the right to give instructions, qualifications, and reasonableness. Identify specific professional, time-related, or personal obstacles early. In case of dispute, individual advice can help.
Do I automatically receive higher pay for covering someone?
Not automatically. Additional working time must be compensated according to the applicable rules. Whether a temporarily higher-level activity triggers an allowance or a different classification depends particularly on the collective agreement and the actual duties. Therefore, check not only the hours but also the provisions of the collective agreement.
Am I allowed to make decisions differently than my colleague?
Within the delegated authority, yes, provided there is no binding instruction to the contrary. Document significant deviations and escalate decisions that have substantial financial, legal, or safety-related consequences.
What should I do if there is no handover?
Create a short list yourself of the known tasks, mark knowledge gaps, and have priorities and authorities confirmed by your manager. Do not accept tacit assumptions as binding commitments.
Conclusion: Good coverage starts with leaving things out
A professional vacation cover keeps critical work running without squeezing two full-time roles into a single workday. The most important tools are a limited task list, clear decision-making authority, designated escalation paths, and honest capacity planning.
Anyone who works additional hours should fully document them and check the applicable compensation. Whoever arranges cover must at the same time decide what will be consciously left undone during the absence. For your next planned absence, use the checklist in this post and first remove all tasks that can wait without real consequences. That decision provides more certainty than the longest handover file.
Sources and further information
- Labour Inspectorate: Evaluation of workplace psychological stress
- Labour Inspectorate: Daily working hours, weekly working hours and overtime
- Labour Inspectorate: Breaks and rest periods
- Arbeiterkammer: Part-time work and additional hours
- Arbeiterkammer: Working time records
- oesterreich.gv.at: Leave entitlement
- Wirtschaftskammer: Compensation for damages and employee liability
