Do you use your vacation time?
Stop for a moment and think back when you last took a vacation.
Like a real vacation.
No work emails.
Zero quick calls with clients.
Not one, “let me just finish this one little thing.”
No work of any kind.
Before I joined the Spin Sucks team, my answer to those questions would have been sometime around college.
Not only did I not take a vacation, I simply didn’t see the value.
Sure I’d take a couple of days off here and there, but a week?!?
The thought of a full week off made my head spin.
I mean, I felt absolutely indulgent when I took a full weekend off!
For that matter, a full day.
Does this sound like you?
I’m coming to you from the other side of this tragic vacation neglect.
In fact, so far from the other side, while you read this I’m currently on vacation.
I like to make my points bold and actionable, so I took a vacation to help lead by example.
That’s how important you all are to me.
I understand the fear of vacation intimately.
And even now I know the benefits for my work (and life) of time away, I still feel guilty every time I request time off.
It’s not that I don’t like time-off. I do.
But my inner sense of professional responsibility makes me feel like a bad child for even thinking about vacation.
Like I’m doing something disrespectful and careless. I feel guilty about any additional work my time away will add to other’s plates.
I feel horrible I can’t be there to respond to every client’s need.
I’m a typical comms pro who wants to please everybody and respond to any need.
I tried to take only one day off for my wedding in November.
I’m getting married on a Saturday and I requested Friday off.
Gini laughed in my face.
So if you are feeling uncomfortable right now at the thought of stepping away completely, I feel ya.
The first time Gini Dietrich made me take a vacation was in conjunction with a competition.
I was sort of petrified.
We had just signed two new clients.
I was going to a conference with one of them immediately after my vacation.
I already felt behind (because I maintain the belief there are 36 hours in a day, when there are actually only 24).
How in the world could I take a week of vacation?
A part of me felt everything would crash down around me the moment I stepped away.
And then an even more frightened part of me worried it wouldn’t.
I’d come back and everyone would be like, “What? You were gone? Oh, we barely even noticed.”
And then I’d be replaced with an office dog or a break time air hockey machine (and we don’t even have an office).
Weakened by Gini’s stubbornness I begrudgingly accepted my vacation time fate.
When I came back from that first vacation, I felt renewed and rejuvenated.
I had emptied my bucket and was full of ideas, professional energy, and able to give more to the organization.
The ROI of my vacation was multifold on my career.
Here are a few reasons why:
I’d guess approximately zero people currently reading this blog post have the type of job they can just step away from for a week without some sort of preparation.
Or at least do so without leaving your organization and/or clients in a big mess.
You need to prepare.
That might take on different forms and levels depending on your role and organization.
My goal when I go away is to cause as little additional stress as I can to the rest of our team or our clients.
So I prepare according.
This means:
For me, this type of preparation allows me to enjoy my vacation more because I’m not as stressed about clients needs I can’t respond to, or team members forced to carry a large additional load.
(I’m still normally slightly stressed about it, but I’m getting there.)
And there you have it.
Vacation time IS important and you need to take it.
Every time I come back from a vacation I’m better.
Our team works more efficiently, and I bring new perspective and energy into everything I do.
Laura Petrolino is chief marketing officer for Spin Sucks, an integrated marketing communications firm that provides strategic counsel and professional development for in-house and agency communications teams. She is a weekly contributor for their award-winning blog of the same name. Spin Sucks. Join the Spin Sucks community.