Should You Take a Vacation?

Many people who have jobs worry about what will happen if they take time off work for a vacation.  Will someone do their job better than they do?  Will they miss an important meeting?  What if something happens and no one can handle it?  Really? Trust me; the world will not collapse if you take time off.  In fact, if you’re thinking like this, you NEED time off!

Everyone is entitled to a vacation.  It staves off burnout and will energize you so that you give a better work performance.  Thinking about having time off will eliminate distractions because you’ll want to get everything finished up and it will boost your efficiency.  Bosses actually expect you to take a vacation.  So how should you go about it?

First, let your boss know when you’re planning on taking your vacation so you can work around any big projects or obligations.  Talk to a co-worker about covering for you when you’re gone.  You’ll be more relaxed when you know that everything is being taken care of.  Be sure to return the favor if you’re asked to cover for the same co-worker who is covering for you.

Make sure you have put money aside from your paychecks to cover the vacation.  If you have everything ready to be paid for, then you don’t have a bunch of bills waiting for you to pay when you get back home.  That takes the fun out of the vacation if you end up in debt and it will cause a lot of unnecessary stress that can be avoided. If possible, book hotels and flights early, it will save you money.  It will also make you have a commitment to actually going.  It’s more difficult to cancel if you have penalty fees.

Leave your laptop at home!  I know, you’ll suffer withdrawal but you’ll relax more if you aren’t tied to your laptop.  Keep the texting and phone calls to a minimum too.  DO NOT CALL WORK!  There isn’t anything you can do and they should be able to handle everything without you if you’ve covered all your bases before you left.  You’re on vacation to relax and enjoy yourself.

Speaking of relaxing, enjoy being with your family members.  This can be a time to reconnect with your loved ones who feel they may not see enough of you when you’re home and working.  Do some things together.  Go for walks, swim, go see a movie whatever it takes to get the family feeling back again.  Make sure that the itinerary you use is flexible and suits everyone.  Not everybody likes to spend three days visiting museums so make sure there’s something for everyone.  You don’t need to fill every single minute of every single day.  Explore and discover fun things to do; have down time to just talk and laugh; do something on your bucket list; remember this is your vacation.

You'll come back from your vacation refreshed and ready to dig back in to work.  Best of all, the job survived without you and everything went smoothly.  See, I told you that you could do it!!

What’s the best vacation you have ever taken and came back refreshed from?