Taking Vacation When You’re Self-Employed: Kristen’s Experience
If you’re anything like me, you simultaneously look forward to and dread your vacation. I can’t stop thinking about how wonderful it will be to do nothing, to have no meetings, to have no e-mails to respond to, to have no deadlines… And then I am fearstruck when I remember that all of those things will be waiting for me when I get back.
The guilt, oh, the guilt! Should I even take a vacation at all? Will I stress about what’s waiting for me at home the whole time I’m gone? Will I regret taking time off when I come back and am confronted with an enormous pile of STUFF that HAS to be DONE? And it’s not like I’m getting paid for the time, either. And it’s not like coworkers will pick up my slack — it’s just me. Talk about stress!
I just got back from a weeklong trip to Florida, and I’m buried under a massive mountain of unanswered e-mails, pushed-back projects, and cranky clients who are indignant at my having the audacity to take a week of vacation. (One even called me on my cell phone, knowing that I was out of town on vacation and wouldn’t be working, to ask if I would forward them information that they had emailed me and then lost. Uh, hi, I didn’t bring my DESKTOP COMPUTER and FILE CABINET to Disneyworld with me! Jeez.)
But despite the overwhelming feeling of being behind, which is my greatest fear, I’m still glad I went. I had wonderful trip and enjoyed spending time with my husband and his family and friends. And next time, now that I’ve seen that the world doesn’t stop just because I take a break, I think I’ll be able to skip the whole fear thing and just enjoy the relaxation.
How do you handle vacation time in your business?
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POSTED IN: Scheduling & Organizing, Self-Employment & Entrepreneurship, Work-Life Balance
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