STAYING CONNECTED WHEN HALF THE OFFICE IS ON HOLIDAY
Summer does something strange to working life. Inboxes go quiet. Decisions get parked until “after the holidays”. Half the people you’d normally chase are out of office, and there’s a collective easing-off that can feel like the whole world has gone to the seaside. It’s tempting to coast (no pun intended) until September. But the quiet season is secretly one of the best times of year to do something most of us mean to do and rarely get round to: stay connected.
Why connections quietly drift
Professional relationships don’t usually end with a bang… they fade. You meant to follow up after that conference. You keep thinking you should drop your old colleague a line. The catch-up with a former manager has been on your mental to-do list since Christmas. Nobody falls out – life just fills up, and the people slightly outside your daily orbit slowly drift out of it. The cost is invisible until the day you need a contact, a reference or some input, and realise you haven’t spoken in two years.
Summer is the natural antidote, precisely because nobody’s rushing. A message that might feel pushy in the frantic run-up to a deadline often feels more relaxed and welcome in July.
Low-Key ways to keep in touch
None of this needs to be a networking event complete with a lanyard and small talk. The best reconnections are quiet and genuine.
The two-line message. No agenda, no ask. “Saw this and thought of you” with a link, or “How did that big project end up going?” People remember the ones who got in touch for no reason other than interest.
The unhurried coffee. With diaries lighter, a proper hour with someone is far easier to find now than it will be in the autumn. In person if you can, a video call if you can’t.
The overdue reply. We all have a message we’ve been meaning to answer for embarrassingly long. Summer is good cover. “Sorry for the slow reply – things have finally calmed down a bit” is a perfectly acceptable reset.
Pro Tip: Make a short list of five people you’ve lost touch with but would love to hear from. Don’t try to contact all five at once. Send one message a week for five weeks. By the end of the summer you’ll have rekindled five relationships without it ever feeling like a chore.
It’s not about Networking
The word “networking” puts a lot of people off, and understandably – it can sound transactional, like collecting business cards to cash in later. This isn’t that. It’s just keeping your actual relationships alive: the people you’ve worked with, learned from, and got on with over the years. Many of our alumni built some of their most valuable connections whilst at the College, and those are exactly the kind worth keeping warm.
The great thing about a summer catch-up is that it pays off in ways you can’t predict. You’re not doing it because you need something – you’re doing it because the relationship is worth more than the silence. And every so often, one of those unhurried coffees turns into the conversation that changes what comes next.
So, before September arrives and everyone’s diary slams shut again, send the message. The quiet is an opportunity, not just a lull.