Corporate Adulting

Take a Vacation, Already!

It may be the best thing you can do for yourself, and your co-workers.

I have a confession. I am inclined to be a control freak, I like to be in charge, I’d rather do it myself and I don’t trust easily. Under stress, this behavior gets magnified exponentially. Quite frankly, it’s a terrible combination.

Several years ago, I was working on a very high stakes project at work. I was in full stress-bunny mode, and also had a full-blown case of “no one can do it like I can”.

It came time for our yearly family vacation. I agonized for a month over whether I should go. At this point in the project, I couldn’t imagine being out of the office for a whole week. There were some critical timelines coming up and I felt like I needed to be there to ensure that all our upcoming deadlines and milestones were met — to my satisfaction.

My project team assured me they had it under control, but I was not so sure. It took a lot of convincing before I finally agreed that I’d go on vacation for one week. One. Week. And that was only after the team agreed that we’d have a daily touch point call where I could grill them on what was going on daily. (Sadly, I’m not exaggerating).

The week before vacation, I was in fine form, and created a document for the team that outlined all the tasks, in detail, that they would need to perform each day. With examples. (Did I mention that I am a control freak under stress?)

I reviewed the document with the team and they once again assured me “we’ve got this.”

I reluctantly went on vacation. My husband’s family vacation, which is in a small town in northern Minnesota at a resort they have been going to for over 50 years. It’s on a large, beautiful lake and the main activities are laying in the sun, riding on the boat, swimming, eating and having a cocktail hour at the end of the day while watching the sunset over the lake. At that time, there was also limited internet connectivity, so I knew that once I went…I would not be connected to work without taking extreme measures like visiting the library in town or finding another wifi hot spot.

We traveled on the weekend, so I had a day or two to acclimate to the slower pace of the lake once we arrived on Saturday. Our first checkpoint call was Monday morning.

The team and I met for the first couple of days, but by the third day, I began cancelling the calls. I checked emails pretty faithfully for the first couple of days as well, but began to taper off as the week went on. By Thursday, I had achieved full relaxation mode and enjoyed the rest of the week without checking in.

Arriving back at work the next week, I found that I was much more laid back about the project, much less reactive to issues that arose and generally less stressed.

By the end of the first week back at work, I realized that taking a week of vacation had probably been the best decision I had made on the project to date. I had gotten so wound up about all that was going on, that I’d been losing sleep, losing sight of what was important and becoming a nightmare to work with. My sweet team cheerfully agreed with me.

5 Tips to Prepare for and De-Stress Your Vacation

1. Limit your work device screen time. If you must check in, try to only do it 2–3 times per day.

2. Turn off your work email notifications on your phone before vacation. You can do this in your Settings.

3. Turn on your out of office notification on your email, with a message that indicates that you are on vacation, apologize for any delay in response, and will respond to all messages when you return. Add an “in case of urgent questions or needs” contact. Pro tip: Make sure you notify that person before you put them on your out of office response!

4. Block your work calendar so that meetings cannot be scheduled during your vacation time. Do this several months in advance if possible. That will help prevent critical meetings from being overlaid onto your vacation time.

5. If you manage a team, it may be beneficial to schedule a touch point once mid-week to ensure there are no fires burning at work. Let your team know that you are ok to cancel the meeting if there is nothing that they urgently need from you.

Taking time away is an important part of work-life balance. It helps you gain perspective, gives you much-needed refreshment and helps relieve stress. It can improve your mood and keep your working relationships healthy.

I’m still not a vacation pro, but after that project, I recognize that taking time away is one of the best things you can do — for everyone involved!

Photo taken in Walker, Minnesota, at Leech Lake on Agency Bay.

Thanks for reading! Read more of my Corporate Adulting Blog series at https://monicaojendyk.medium.com/.