flipping holidays, who needs em?!

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

When I first started work (employed) I was on a six month fixed term contract with 12 days associated paid leave. Any unused leave would be paid off at the end. It was during a previous recession, so jobs were hard to get, and I thought to myself well I might as well not use the holiday, as I would rather have the money when the job stopped, and then I'd probably have more free time than I wanted anyway.

 

At the end of the contract it got renewed for another six months, and then another and another... After two and a half years with no days off, I went to see Personnel (this was before the invention of HR) and asked just how long I could keep rolling days forward. They were staggered by the amount of holiday I had built up (effectively I had the right to take 72 days), and we agreed I would take a week off and they paid off the rest.

 

I'd gone straight from education to the job without a break, so hadn't actually had a holiday in three years. At the end of it, I realised why I had felt so run-down, tired and negative about everything. I was doing a job in a field I was really interested in, but it had become a millstone. I woke up, went to work, came home, went to bed. I spent weekends trying to get my head above water on sleep, I just seemed to need more and more sleep. I realised I hadn't been out in years and didn't know anyone socially in the area after living there for two and a half years!

 

In the six months after I'd been off, I took the leave that built up during that period. I felt much better, went out, got to know people and actually met my now wife of 10yrs.

 

Certainly for me, I proved I could keep going indefinitely, but doing so really didn't make me better at my job, or at anything else. There's a reason holidays are a statutory requirement, and it's not all about 'workers' rights'.

 

Alec

 

 

Nice post. I haven't taken a holiday in 10 years and think I need to take a leaf out of our book.

[the hedge man]

i think if you have kids, then time off is more rewarding. thankfully i dont have kids yet!

[Paul Barton]

I've just got back from a week at Centre Parcs too! I don't want to go to work tomorrow.

[easy-lift guy]

As a ground dwelling inventing, entrepreneur type person. I have found that taking time off weather it be alone or with family has been critical to my success. Time in its simplest form is the single greatest commodity that has the shortest shelf life. Time management

is very challenging on a day to day basis. The key IMHO, Is to have a balance or plan to make time off to do other things than work. Life is how one lives it, I choose a balanced approach since it works well for me.

easy-lift guy