How to Stay Fully Staffed (and Sane) During the Busiest PTO Season
Summer’s here—and for most businesses, that means longer days, bigger workloads, and more employees headed out on vacation. While your team deserves time off, staffing gaps during Q3 can quietly chip away at productivity, morale, and profitability if you’re not prepared.
Burnout doesn’t happen all at once. It builds—slowly. One unfilled shift, one extra duty, one “can you cover for me?” at a time.
At TEL Staffing & HR, we see it every year. Businesses that don’t plan ahead for summer coverage wind up overstretching their core team, falling behind, and scrambling to fix problems that could’ve been avoided. Here’s how to spot the warning signs—and what to do to stay ahead.
Why Summer Gaps Are So Disruptive
🔍When was the last time you looked at your job descriptions? Not just glanced—but really reviewed them for accuracy, clarity, and relevance?
Why This Matters in Q3:
Summer staffing challenges aren’t just about vacations. They’re about how your business adjusts—or doesn’t—to the sudden shift in availability, capacity, and focus. Consider this:
- PTO and FMLA requests spike between June and August
- High school and college workers leave seasonal jobs
- Productivity slows as workloads increase
- Burnout rises when core staff are asked to do more with less
- Customer experience suffers from slower service or errors
And unlike the holidays, summer absenteeism isn’t predictable. It comes in waves—scattered PTO, sudden childcare conflicts, unplanned medical leave. Creating your backup plan NOW, saves you from scrambling later.
🔍 Quick stat:
According to SHRM, 3 in 5 employees say summer is their most stressful season at work due to increased coverage demands and unclear expectations.
4 Signs Your Team Is Feeling the Pressure
These aren't just people problems—they're business risks. When your top performers are too stretched to think straight, performance drops. And when no one else is trained to step in, everything slows down.
5 Ways to Prevent Burnout from Summer Staffing Gaps
Map Out Time-Off Calendars Now
Get full visibility into who’s out when. Use a shared calendar or PTO tracker so you can anticipate overlap—and avoid having too many key roles out at once.
- Cross-Train for Coverage
If only one person knows how to run payroll, update inventory, or close out the day—it’s time to train a backup. Cross-training reduces dependency and creates natural backup support.
TEL Tip: Make cross-training part of onboarding so you're never reliant on one person for critical tasks.
- Use Temporary or On-Demand Staff
Instead of stretching your team to the limit, bring in trained help during your busiest weeks. Whether it’s admin support, warehouse help, or front-desk coverage, flexible staffing can protect your team’s mental health and your service quality.
That’s where a staffing partner like TEL can step in—we handle recruiting, screening, and onboarding so you can stay focused.
- Set Clear Expectations for Summer Flexibility
Don’t wait until someone is out to decide how their work will be handled. Make sure policies around coverage, communication, and handoffs are clear and documented.
- Check In Early and Often
Use July to take your team’s pulse. Ask managers where they’re seeing stress. Ask employees where they’re feeling overloaded. A 10-minute conversation now can prevent a costly resignation later.
TEL’s Approach to Summer Staffing Relief
At TEL Staffing & HR, we help Florida businesses stay fully staffed without the panic. Whether you need a temp employee for three weeks, an on-call receptionist, or long-term support while someone’s on leave, we make it easy.
You tell us the gap—we fill it, fast. No job board posting, no back-and-forth interviews. Just reliable people, ready when you are.
