You Should Take Some Time Off

Why work-life balance is important for you, too.

For as long as people have been working, one of the key issues that keeps coming up is the concept of work-life balance. After all, it’s important that you can easily manage their personal wants and needs with the responsibilities that come from being a productive worker. Most often, that juggling act is discussed from the perspective of the employee and their 40-hour work week — but that’s not where the conversation should end. 

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As an executive, you put the hours every week too, so you should be able to take time off. You may feel the pressure as someone in the higher echelons of your company to be on point at all times, but that’s neither reasonable nor healthy. If you want to be the absolute best executive you can be, you’re going to need to take time off and enjoy life every once in a while. 

The Time Off Conundrum

Whether it’s by taking time to travel the world with friends, bettering yourself through exercise or sports, or simply taking time to create memories with the people you love, it’s important that you remember not to let your career dictate your entire life. Sure, it sounds like a simple concept to understand: carving time out for yourself is a good thing, but it turns out that it’s easier said than done for most American workers.

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According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, approximately 46% of U.S. workers that receive some form of paid time off from their employer take less time away from work than they’re offered. As an executive, researchers found that you and your cohort especially don’t do well in this area. According to their data, 54% of managers say they take less time off than what’s available to them compared to 42% of non-managers.

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All of that unused time off adds up. One study conducted by U.S. Travel Association, Oxford Economics and Ipsos in 2019 found that American workers left 768 million vacation days unused. That’s 768 million days to make the most out of life — to reap the benefits of your hard work.

Why You Might Not Be Taking Time Off

While it’s apparent through various studies that you’re likely not taking enough time for yourself, it’s important to know why that might be the case. In their study, Pew Researchers found the top five reasons why people said they left vacation days on the table. See if any of these sound familiar to you:

• Don’t need to take more time off. In some instances, people feel like they have enough time off and don’t need any more. While that may be the case, it’s important to remember that paid-time off is allotted into your benefits. It’s there for you to use, so there’s no reason not to cool your heels and do what you want to do every once in a while!
• Worried they’ll fall behind at work. The concept of taking a week away from work might be scary because even though you’re away, your inbox is filling up and tasks likely aren’t getting done. This can be combated by setting an away message that lets people know who to reach out to in your absence and delegating tasks to others while you’re away.
• Feel guilty about making co-workers take on more tasks. This one’s only natural. As you work with a team, you likely feel like you’re pushing your responsibilities onto others. That being said, a major part of your job as an executive is to be able to effectively delegate tasks and responsibilities to others, so doing this while you find time for yourself is equally important.
• Think taking vacation might hurt potential for promotions. If you’re at a company where you feel you’ll never advance unless you’re there every waking moment, then you may want to reevaluate your current position. A good manager/executive/business owner should know that having happy and rested people on their team yields better results and more engaged people. Who wants to be a high-level executive that’s burnt out all the time and unable to enjoy the fruits of their labor?

Why It’s Important to Take Time Off for Yourself

You may have noble intentions for why you don’t feel like you need to carve out some personal time, but multiple studies have shown that continuously working without taking yourself into consideration can have some negative impacts on your health. Not only that, but a rested and relaxed you is the best you, both at home and at the office.

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Taking time can reduce the chance of burnout. According to the National Institutes of Health, burnout can lead to very serious physical and mental problems, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, fatigue, insomnia, and other conditions. If you find that as an executive you spend too much time working, work long hours, or are constantly under pressure, then your chances for burnout are pretty good. By taking time away from work and spending time doing what you love, you effectively release a building source of tension.

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Simply planning for your time off can improve your mood. According to the University of Pittsburgh’s Mind-Body Center, researchers found that planning and taking a vacation can reduce depression and increase your general mood.

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Our time is limited, so it’s best to make memories while we can! On a more existential level, taking time off is so important because our most valuable resource isn’t money or material things — it’s time. We only have so much time living this wild and crazy thing we call a life, so while it’s great to feel fulfilled and challenged at work, it’s important to remember why you’re working in the first place. It’s to be able to provide for the people we love and ultimately to spend time with them when we can. Those of us with young ones in our lives know how quickly they grow up, so it’s imperative that we carve out time not just for ourselves, but for those loved ones. The last thing you want to do is wish you had spent your allotted vacation days when you had the chance, so plan your vacation today and make some memories.

Best Practices to Take Time Off

As an executive, your presence in the office is a force multiplier. Your decision-making capabilities and effectiveness at multitasking often helps drive the company in the right direction. So when it comes time to spend time away from work, you can also use those traits to best leverage your time away. Here are some tips you can use to ensure things continue to move smoothly in your absence without taking away from your downtime.

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• Start planning yesterday. That might sound like something you’d need a time machine to accomplish, but in reality it just means that you should try to plan your next vacation as soon as possible. By blocking out the time and considering factors like who needs to know you’ll be gone, who you’ll delegate tasks to, and who’s effectively in charge in your absence right now, you won’t have to stress out getting those plans in action days before you’re supposed to begin relaxing.
• Engender a culture of self-care. One of the best things you can do as a leader is create a workplace environment where everyone can feel comfortable taking time off. As mentioned before, too many people leave vacation days on the table, so by taking your time off, you’re showing the rest of the team that they can do the same. That not only makes your vacations beneficial for you, but it also creates an environment where people can come back to work relaxed, refreshed, and reminded of why they’re doing what they do.
• Delegate responsibilities. If you’re an executive, you’re probably already good at delegating things. This is equally important because you’ll need to make sure things continue moving smoothly while you’re gone. Find those around you that can handle some of your responsibilities and split them amongst those individuals. That way, you don’t have to worry if something is being done on time or not — you already know they are.
• Set expectations for while you’re away. Much like your team’s KPIs and expected yearly and quarterly results, you can set goals and expectations for your vacations as well. Even if it’s just as easy as “keep things running smoothly,” that’s something your employees can grasp.
• Establish boundaries. While you’re away, you should do everything you can to pretty much unplug from work. Set an away message for your emails. Change your voicemail to let people know you’ll be out of the office for a set amount of time. And most importantly, tell your coworkers that you are not to be contacted unless there’s a dire emergency. You deserve to not have to worry about work while you’re taking your time off!

Bottom Line

Regardless of whether you’re a top executive, a middle-manager, or an hourly employee, your time off is incredibly important. Remembering that you’re more than your job can be hard at times, but it’s important that you also keep in mind that at the end of the day, we’re all just human beings. What good is a well-paying executive position if you can’t leverage that success into creating lasting memories with the people you care about? By carving out time for yourself, you make things better for yourself, your family and friends, and your company as a whole. So consider your personal time today, because you deserve it.

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