How to prepare your Google Workspace Account before you go on holiday!

Nothing is more stressful than the hours before you go on holiday, especially if you have a young family. You have to make sure you have everything packed, travel insurance in place, and quadrupled-check that you have your passports with you.

It's not until 40 or so minutes after takeoff that you can finally relax and realise, "Oh bugger, I forgot to give my work colleagues access to my email".

To make it easier for you to prepare your Google Workspace account so others in your team can access the data they need while you are away, here is a list of things you should do a few days before you head out for your break away.

Gmail

Your email account may hold useful emails relating to projects your team is working on; they may need these emails while you are away. You can grant "delegated access" to your email account to the person covering for you.

Here is how you set up delegated access. With delegated access, you don't need to share your login details, and an audit log is kept, recording all actions taken in your email account by your team. On your return, you can revoke delegated access.

You may also want to turn on your out-of-office!

Google Drive

Google Drive is where all your data is stored. Go through your recent Google Drive files and put them in the correct Shared Drives so your team can access them, especially if you have "work in progress" files stored privately in your "My Drive" area.

Check whether the access levels on any shared drives you have created are appropriate, and elevate someone in your team to be able to adjust the sharing settings in your shared drives before you jet off.

Google Calendar

For events on your Calendar, especially repeating events scheduled with clients, add someone in your team to the event with the ability to edit and reschedule the event while you are away. Or share your Calendar with them so they can change any event.

You should also create an out-of-office event so that if someone invites you to an event, Calendar will automatically decline the invitation and reply with a custom message you have set.

Google Voice

If you use Google Voice, remember to set up your do-not-disturb feature so you don't get pestered by phone calls and set up call forwarding so someone on your team can answer calls while you are away.

Pause your Google Work Profile

If your Google Workspace account is set up on your Android phone, using the Digital Wellbeing settings, you can pause your work profile so you aren't interrupted by work apps and notifications.

One More Thing - Passwords

The best solution is to use a password manager service such as Bitwarden. You can store all your passwords securely, and when you go on holiday, you can share the passwords your team may need. It's all very clever and saves you from responding to desperate text messages asking for passwords.

By following the tips above (before you go on holiday), you won't get desperate texts from the office during your holiday because your team will be able to access all the files and documents they need, leaving you to have a peaceful holiday!