Take vacation!

In most full-time, permanent jobs, there will be an allotment of vacation, either in days that you must use each year, and/or some of which can be ‘banked’ or carried from year to year. While it can be a good idea to build up a cushion of a few days of vacation, depending on your personal circumstances in which you might need to take paid leave from work, it is recommended that you use your leave entitlements.

Vacation leave is an opportunity to restore balance in your working life, to reconnect with your family and friends, and to reflect on your career progression from a more distant vantage point. A good vacation energizes you to return to work, and equips you with a fresh approach. Time away from work should truly be time in which you have a clean break from work, in which you do not check messages, do not leave a means to be reached, and in which you do not think about work, take work home, or plan for what you will do when you are back. After a true vacation, you may forget some pressing concerns, so that when you return you will start from a blank slate to review the issues.

Note that you do not actually need to travel to have a vacation, though it is highly recommended when you are young or mobile, or otherwise have some financial means to do so. To physically displace yourself or to be out of the country discourages contact with the workplace. Seeing other places and ways of life will not only give you worldly experience but it will enrich your current life in allowing you to consider other possibilities. Having a degree of culture shock can shake up your complacency or sense of entitlement to your current living conditions. Being an outsider to another culture, or being in the linguistic minority will test your flexibility, adaptability, people skills, and ingenuity. If you are currently a cultural or other kind of minority at work, you can also use vacation time to connect with your sense of home, and re-establish and re-draw your identity.

Vacation is a time when those you work with can experience your absence, and they may learn how to work without you, recognize the value you add, or test taking on the responsibilities of your position in either a formal (acting in your position) or informal way.

Planned time away breaks up the routine, and lets you reflect on the affects work has on you. Do you look forward to going back to work, and get back into the routine without disturbance? If so, you still have a lot to contribute. If you dread the return, and spend time looking for another position while on vacation, or find yourself fantasizing about a different life, it may be time to do a reality check to see what your options are, and what holds you to your current employment.

Often you don’t realize you need a vacation until you leave the office on the last day before your vacation, and realize that you will not be back the following day, or after the weekend. It is after you return to work that others notice a difference in you, and may initially interact with you differently.

Even if it is not possible to take a vacation of a few weeks, it is important to make the most of time you have away from the office. Extending a holiday weekend by an additional day can sometimes make a significant difference. Taking an additional day here and there to create a long weekend also serves to reduce the hold that the working life can have on you, again, which is not noticed until you have a chance to step back.

Just as a period of sickness or a sick day can suddenly spark a revelation about your working conditions, a period of vacation can do the same, and provide a natural time for you to reflect on how far you have come along since the last vacation or time off work.

If you are taking your vacation to spend time with others, appreciate them, and how they have supported you while you are working. Consider the impact of your working life on them. Seek their input on how your behaviour, or values have changed over the course of your time with a particular employer. Again, these are considerations that may be more clearly seen by others, and reflect gradual changes. Seek feedback on the value of vacation for them and for you, and this too can prompt change in your day to day working life and how you establish priorities.

Recognize that working overtime, if not compensated either in a monetary fashion or in time off, is a choice you are making, and can have adverse consequences on your personal life. If compensated in a monetary fashion, balance this with the overall goals you have in what you are saving and investing for or how you are spending. If compensated in time, pace yourself and take time off in order not to overwork yourself. There are exceptions to this, such as when you are starting in a new position, or are in an environment in which unpaid overtime is expected, with other benefits or opportunities as a result, but continuous unpaid overtime without tangible benefit is a form of exploitation. If you do not hold someone accountable for this, you are allowing it to take place.

If you are a supervisor, encourage your staff to take their allotted vacation time, and be diligent in ensuring their duties can be taken on in another way or set aside in their absence so that they do not regret the time off for the work they will return to. It is better that employees take advantage of their vacation time rather than habitually use up sick leave to have a break from the accumulating pressures of work. Ideally, you would ask your staff to give notice of their vacation plans so that you can plan operational needs based on this. There may be seasonal or cyclical times when it is busier, and you can encourage time to be taken during the slower periods.

In brief, in order to work effectively, employees need days of rest, and vacation.