It’s time to take a break
I’m taking a 10-day vacation starting next week. I went into my settings this morning to craft an elegant vacation auto-responder only to find that, lo and behold, past ZJ already made one.
It reads:
Hello, and thank you for your email. Like many workers in the tech community, it deeply pains me to say that I am on vacation and won’t be checking email while I am away. It’s going to take every ounce of restraint that I have, but I’m doing it because I know it’s important.
Why is it important?
Going on vacation literally rewires your brain (and “Improves your personality!”)
Turning off your phone has many of the same effects as meditation
Reading email raises your heart rate
Taking time off sets healthy boundaries
Disconnecting can cause anxiety for many people (myself included!) but it is absolutely critical to mantaining strong personal relationships, enhancing creativity and productivity at work, and preventing burnout.
Take care and hope to see your Vacation Responder next!
We’ve always had a (very) flexible culture at Bright + Early — we openly talk about mental health, our personal struggles, and when we are experiencing burnout or frustrated with a project. We actively avoid time-related-judgment, reminding each other not to justify stepping away a bit early or a bit late like we owe someone an explanation. We try not to glorify being busy and focus only on results.
With all that support, you’d think I’d be feeling easy, breezy, reveling in the commute-less joy of purely remote work. Instead, like many of you, I am just so tired.
It feels weird to take a vacation in the midst of a pandemic, when so many people are out of jobs altogether and there is so much uncertainty in the air. It might even make you anxious, like the naive pre-pandemic ZJ who wrote the auto-responder above.
But this is the time. If you have it, take it. If you don’t, ask your company just what the hell they’re doing. Exhausted people don’t make productive employees — they make mistakes that cost more to clean up than to prevent. If you’re saving those precious days for some mystical post-Corona travel, stop. Spend time with your kids or yourself without the nagging feeling that you’re supposed to be doing something else at the forefront of your mind.
This year I’m rewriting my vacation responder. I’m not feeling anxious about taking time off — in fact, I’m more convinced than ever that time off is the right thing to do. I hope you will take a break, too.
