Recently I needed to unexpectedly take some time off from work for personal reasons. I knew that there was one day that I absolutely would not be able to work (a Thursday), and while I was hoping to be back at work after that one day, I knew I might have to take additional days off. And ultimately, I did end up taking off a second day (Friday) and not returning to work until the following Monday.
It’s hard for me to take days off of work. Part of that is the general American attitude of putting work first (as implied in the meme/tweet above). Part of it is that I and many of my friends and family have been in situations where we needed to use all of our vacation days for religious holidays (at one job I actually negotiated to get separate religious observance days because my PTO would not have been enough days for holidays). But mostly it’s just that I feel like a slacker if I take off time that I really don’t need to take off (which probably ties back to the American attitude towards work).
There have been times when I’ve days off just for the sake of taking time off, and while I enjoy having time off, I always come back to work feeling like I missed something and I should have been there. There have also been times when I probably should have taken time off and I didn’t, and on those days I do feel like my work suffers, but I do still manage to get things done. In most situations I’m more likely to work than not work, so it did surprise me that I was willing to take two days off.
The main reason I felt comfortable taking the days off is that I knew my team wouldn’t mind. I missed a lot of days in September (all planned) and while I felt like I hadn’t planned out my work for those sprints well, I didn’t feel like my team was strongly impacted by my absence and nobody seemed to resent me missing so much time. I had also seen other people take last-minute time off (for various reasons, including personal and family situations), which made me feel more comfortable with the idea that my taking time off would be supported.
I also know that my company values work life balance, which helped me feel comfortable about taking off so soon after missing many days for holidays. We have an unlimited PTO policy, and the company wants us to take days (in fact, engineering has a goal of having each engineer take at least 2 days of PTO per month). My company operates in the women’s and family health space, and throughout my time here I have gotten the sense that family is important to the company, both serving our users who are building (and raising) families and supporting the families of our employees.
On reflection, I realized that I most likely could have worked that second day (in fact, that was my original plan). I probably even could have worked a half day on the first day I took off. In fact, in some of my previous jobs, I would have done one of those two things. But I decided to take the two days off, and that was absolutely the right decision. I’m glad I understood what I needed to do and that my company has a culture that will support my needs. There were probably other factors involved in my decision (including the fact that I wasn’t overly invested in my work this sprint), but ultimately I know I wouldn’t have taken those days if I thought it was going to negatively impact my team. Knowing that I could take time off and be supported by my team and my company was truly a relief and I’m grateful to work for a company and with a group of people who understand that my life outside of work is just as important as (or really, more important than) my life at work.
