What Your Out of Office Reply Says About Your Leadership

What does your out of office reply say right now?

If you’re like most American leaders in healthcare it probably sounds something like this: I am out of the office but checking email periodically. For urgent matters please call my cell phone at any time.

Now consider this one making the rounds in Europe: Hi there. Your email is important to me. But then again, so is my marriage and my book.

Or this gem from a British Airways holiday campaign: Hey there. I’ve received your email. I’ve printed it off and I’m going to light it on fire for flaming cocktails for the whole bar.

We laugh. And then we go back to checking our phones on vacation.

Here’s what sustainable leadership actually looks like, from the inside out

We Know Better, So Why Aren’t We Doing Better?

Here’s what the research has been telling us for decades: higher wellbeing is directly correlated with higher engagement, less burnout, and greater productivity. This isn’t new information. These aren’t emerging findings. Study after study has confirmed it, and yet we keep treating self-care like a luxury we’ll get to someday rather than a leadership practice we need right now.

So what are we waiting for?

Somewhere along the way we started wearing exhaustion like a badge of honor. We reward the people who never leave. We side-eye the ones who do. We’ve all been there, watching a colleague head out at 2pm not knowing they came in at 1am, and someone mutters oh, banker’s hours?

We are, to put it plainly, a little rude to each other about this. And it’s hurting us.

Your Team Is Watching Everything You Do

Here’s the part that matters most for you as a leader: whether you realize it or not, you are modeling wellness or burnout every single day. Not in what you say, but in what you do.

When you send emails at midnight, your team sees it. When you text on weekends, your team sees it. When you come back from vacation having never actually unplugged, your team sees that too. And what they hear, even if you never say a word, is this is what is expected here.

You can hang all the wellness posters you want in the break room. You can talk about work-life balance in every staff meeting. But if your behavior tells a different story, that is the story your team believes.

We cannot pour from empty cups. And we cannot ask our teams to fill theirs if ours are running dry.

Leadership Is an Inside Job First

Real sustainability starts with you getting honest about what actually restores you, and it probably isn’t what you think.

When I ask leaders across the country about their self-care practices, I often hear the same answers: massages, pedicures, spa days. And listen, those things are wonderful. Treat yourself. But that’s pampering, and pampering is not the same as recentering.

Recentering is how you come back to yourself. It’s smaller, quieter, and more personal than a spa day. Think about Happy Gilmore: what is your happy place? Not the grand vacation or the big reward. The simple moment. The memory that makes you exhale.

Maybe it’s scrolling through old photos on your phone. Maybe it’s a particular song, a walk, a cup of coffee before anyone else wakes up. Whatever it is, do you even know what it is? And when did you last do it?

Creating Space for Joy, Intentionally

Now imagine bringing that into your team.

What if your next huddle started with everyone sharing one simple thing that brings them joy? Not a forced icebreaker, but a genuine moment of connection. Joy is contagious. When we create intentional space for it, something shifts in a team. People feel seen. They feel human. And humans who feel seen perform differently.

You have more influence over this than you may realize. Research tells us that up to 70% of team engagement is determined by the direct manager. You are the culture. And right now nearly half of nurse managers are considering leaving the profession in the next six months, not because the work isn’t meaningful, but because they are running on empty and nobody gave them permission to stop.

So consider this your permission.

A Practice Worth Trying

This week, before you do anything else, answer two questions:

What is my happy place, the small, simple thing that genuinely restores me?

And then: When did I last do it?

Start there. Not with a spa day. Not with a grand plan. Just with honesty about what you need, and the decision to matter to yourself as much as you matter to everyone else.

Your team is watching. Show them what it looks like to lead from a full cup.

“Reflection: Look at your last out of office reply — or imagine writing one right now. What does it say about what you believe you deserve?”

About the Author

Dr. Crystal Lawson is a nationally recognized nurse leadership expert, keynote speaker, and CEO & Founder of We Rise Up, LLC. She equips, empowers, and inspires nurse leaders to rise into their full potential, with confidence, clarity, and compassion. Learn more at DrClawRN.com.