Vacation Guilt 🏖
American vs. European vacation culture and four tips to fully embrace periods of spontaneity and freedom.
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Summer, and with that, vacation time is within reach 🐝
After a long year of self-isolation, home-office and consistently being faced with the unknown, we start to move into a new and much needed optimistic direction.
These changes bring an opportunity for us to reimagine the way we set ourselves up, and design our work, our lives, creative processes, and incubation periods to what suits us best.
Being European, summer, for me means vacation time. It means traveling through different countries, taking a couple of weeks off, planning 1-2 longer (1-2 week) and a few shorter trips (3-4 days).
Having lived in NY for a little more than two years now, my friends and I often discuss the differences between European and American working culture - which is one of the reasons why I started this newsletter - and obviously a big part of work culture is vacation culture.
This tweet by Samuel Pollen about European vs. American out-of-offices was shared and discussed a lot within my social bubble, which made me want to dedicate this month’s newsletter to it. |
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Americans and Europeans have wildly different vacation cultures. In the US, there is no minimum state or federal paid vacation. Whereas in some European countries, employees can enjoy as many as 38 paid days off each year.
But it’s not only that the American system doesn’t allow as much vacationing and leisure time, there is more to it. It is one thing to have difficulties to unwind and relax when you are actually on holiday, but for many, taking time off in the first place is extremely difficult. Not only do Americans get far less vacation, they are very reluctant to use it. Half of Americans actually haven’t gone on vacation in a year, while almost four in 10 haven’t gone on vacation for two years. |
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The Guilt Of Taking Time To Rest
On a rational level, we all know that vacations and time-off work are good for our mental health and wellbeing. However, in our hustle-culture voicing the need to rest and reset feels somehow like a defeat and is often connected to a feeling of guilt.
When we take time off, we may feel bad because we are leaving our co-workers with extra work or are already thinking about the stack of work that will start piling up in our inbox when we return.
And as work has become such an integral part of our lives and our careers demand our attention 24/7, it becomes harder to actually detach from our work and do nothing.
But time away from our desks is vital for our work and life as it refreshes our mind, boosts our creativity and improves productivity. Studies show that vacations increase cognitive flexibility — they help you combine more raw ideas. By slowing down and unwinding our minds, we can create fresh perspectives and bring new ideas into the world.
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Monthly Ideas & Picks
to slow down and embrace downtime
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In Pursuit Of Being Present
In order to be more present while being out of office, we have dug a little deeper and accumulated some tips to fully embrace these periods of spontaneity and freedom in our lives.
🪢 Break Free From Your Routines
Creating and maintaining a sequence of events can be really helpful to manage stress and invite structure into our lives. A routine offers comfort and protection, in a world of work that is often not controllable.
But consciously uncoupling from a fixed routine - at least for a few days - can have an immense impact on our wellbeing. The purpose is to practice the present moment without being on the clock and operating on schedule.
☯️Reframe Relaxation
We have to flip the script on how we view vacations. “Periods of rest aren’t rewards for great work, but a requirement for great work to happen”, as Tonya Dalton, a productivity expert and author of “The Joy of Missing Out” puts it. Approaching each (vacation) day as a singular thing, we can soak in the present moments without relying on routines, schedules and just let go.
🤝 Establish Trust
When we start to trust that our work is very valuable but we are not the only people in the world who know how to do the job, we can start to let go. Our projects will survive a week or two without us, and the work world will continue to rotate.
🙋♀️Oversharing vacation plans
The biggest fear teammates have about vacation is leaving colleagues behind and being seen as "lazy." Therefore, the more we share and the early we share, the more we can reduce feelings of anxiety, and allow for better planning.
With this in mind, we are encouraging you to start planning your vacations for this summer, plan in time for rest, relaxation and new adventures. Because we all know that you deserve it.
Now get away from your desk and start living (and resting) 🌞
Happy Friday (and long weekend if you're in the US)
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Thank you for reading and being here with me!
Alice
If you enjoy the newsletter, I would really appreciate you forward it to a friend or colleague who you think would enjoy it. The newsletter is 100% free and that’s the best way to encourage me to keep on writing.
If you have any questions, comments or would like to say hi, just hit reply to this email - I'd love to hear from you!
outofoffice@alicekatter.com
getoutofoffice.network
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