Linked: Always (and Never) Out of Office: Why Two-Thirds of Professionals Aren’t Taking Time Off in 2020, But Should
I know the travel options are limited for us this year, and maybe some families don’t have the financial wherewithal to travel anyway, but this is not going to to end well:
“Most of us are putting vacation on the back burner, and not just for summer: nearly 70% of professionals say they don’t plan to take vacation — or aren’t sure yet if they will — for the rest of the year.”
My company realized early on that the pandemic was going to leave a lot of us unable to travel for vacation this year, so they did something really nice. They increased the amount of vacation time we could roll over to next year. They also did something else really nice, they didn’t increase it so much that you could just not take any time off and not lose any earned time.
And then, even though they increased the rollover, they also encouraged everyone to take time off.
For myself, I started working here in Aug. 2019, so with probationary periods and other things I already knew I’d be waiting until Spring to take any of my days off, and like many of you, that schedule just kept getting postponed, and changed, in the hopes that we’d feel comfortable taking at least a little trip.
Of course, the COVID-19 situation in Louisiana hasn’t really allowed for much of that, but I’m taking next week off anyway, even if we don’t do anything but drive out to the bayous or walk around the zoo during the day, because I’ve gone almost an entire year without a day off and, frankly, I’m exhausted. I need a break. I need to do something other than sit in my home office all day.
It might not be a glamourous trip, but it’s the kind of break we all need, for our stress levels, or mental health, and really, for our coworkers emotional safety as well, because the more stressed and anxious we get, the worse we likely are to them.
So go, get away from work and take care of yourself. Very few of us work in jobs that are so important that they can’t wait. I know some of your customers and bosses may tell you that the work can’t wait, but I think we all know, it can. We’re not that important, at work.
https://blog.linkedin.com/2020/july/16/always-and-never-out-of-office
Follow these topics: Career, Links, Mental Health
