Why You Should Take a Vacation

A version of this article was first published as my July 2019 monthly column on Troy Media.

I just returned from a 2-week road trip in Newfoundland with my sister, a trip I highly recommend.  Being away, really off the grid, gave me time to reflect on all the reasons it is important to take annual leave.  That is how vacation used to happen - annual leave where you left the office, packed up the kids and the station wagon and were absent for several weeks at a time.  Now we squeeze in a long weekend between due dates and business trips and rack up un-used vacation days.  It has gotten so bad, most employers have done away with vacation carry-over.  Somewhere along the way, we gave up our right to put down our tools and rest.  
I will admit at the outset that I am a vacation-taker.  It goes back to my childhood.  My dad was a teacher, so come summer we had the opportunity to take off for weeks at a time.  I got into the habit.  I even remember a shocking time in the mid-00s when I spent 3 weeks touring Australia with my Blackberry locked in the hotel safe in Sydney.  While that may be a bit extreme, I do think breaking away from work in a meaningful way, for a significant period of time, is critical to our health and well-being as humans, and as workers.  There are at least 7 good reasons to take your annual leave.

1. Because you are probably a lot more tired and stressed out than you realize.  I met with someone this past week who just returned from 10 days away, his first vacation since starting a new job over a year ago.  His colleagues had noticed he was becoming more and more irritable, which is uncharacteristic for him.  He admitted he should have done it sooner, that it wasn’t until he stepped away he realized just how tense he was.  Now that he’s back, his tolerance and optimism have returned.  
   
2. Get outside your comfort zone.  Vacations are a really good way to experience discomfort for a short amount of time.  You can try something you’ve never done, go somewhere you’ve never been, spend time talking to people you don’t regularly encounter.  There are not many other opportunities in life to be someone else for a couple of weeks, and fewer opportunities to learn more about our world and its people.  I guarantee it will give you new and unexpected insights into some of the issues you are wrangling with back at the office.
   
3. Remind yourself everyone is frustrating from time to time, not just the people you work with.  A couple of weeks away with those you love most will remind you living with and accommodating other people is challenging.  It isn’t just your colleagues who are irrational and annoying and try to make your life miserable. 
   
4. Give others a break from you.  Let’s face it, it is possible you are also annoying at work from time to time.  Going away gives other people, direct reporting teams in particular, an opportunity to get a break from you.  I have heard some people say their boss going away is a gift they cherish.
   
5. Remind yourself you are not indispensable.  Believe it or not, the world does continue to turn in your absence.  I know you understand this theoretically, but it is good to experience it in practical terms now and then.  The reality is, you are probably more committed to your work situation than it is committed to you.  It is good to remember this from time to time. 
   
6. Give others development opportunities.  For many of us, when we go away, someone needs to stand in for us.  This is an opportunity for others to practice higher-level decision-making or authority, or test out different skills.  You taking a couple of weeks away can be an excellent learning opportunity for someone else.  
   
7. Build your resilience.  Holidays have a way of confronting us with unexpected problems we don’t immediately know how to solve.  Friends of mine had their passports stolen on their last day in Prague.  Talk about an opportunity to demonstrate problem-solving and resilience.  Not that I would wish that on anyone, but you get the drift.

We have created a world that is constantly ‘on’ and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be constantly ‘on’.  For the betterment of ourselves, and others, sometimes we just need to give it a rest.