Take Long Vacations, Even When You Feel Like You Can’t

As business owners, managers, technicians or whatever role you play, it’s easy to get burned out when you work so hard all the time. Grinding away at the job every week without anything to look forward to in your life is a dangerous practice. Furthermore, there are very evident reasons why taking long vacations are a necessity for your mental health and professional success.

Short Vacations vs. Long Vacations

While taking a long weekend to relax or take a short trip is great, most people have a hard time getting fully rested and recovered over a few days. The first few days of a long vacation are spent turning your brain off from work anyway, so a short weekend vacation is really not enough — if your brain is still working, you aren’t recovering. 

Taking that extra Friday or Monday off is still important to do, but you should also be trying to plan and schedule some extended time off. Even if you don’t go on a vacation, spending time with your family or doing things in town you never have time to do is extremely beneficial.

Why is it Especially Difficult for Business Owners?

It’s difficult for all roles in our companies to take vacation, but business owners have their own special difficulties. First and foremost, most business owners either can’t or don’t think they can take vacation at all. This is a huge hurdle to overcome mentally.

Secondly, it’s harder for owners to turn off the stress and worry of their business while taking time off. Most owners find it very challenging to disconnect — especially when they only get a short time to do so. The longer you have to stay away from work, the better chance you have of finally feeling relaxed and disconnected from the worries of the business.

How to Take a Long Vacation

It’s difficult to imagine taking a multi-week vacation if you’ve only ever taken long weekends for yourself. It’s best to use a planned process so that your business and your mental state are ready for your time away. 

• Start off with a small vacation — one week is all it takes.
• Decide what responsibilities can wait a week until you return.
• Figure out which things you can delegate for a week.
• Start the training for tasks that need it while you’re gone. 
• Are there things that don’t need to be done at all?

Use these simple steps to organize and prepare other people to take over for you while you’re away. One business week should be completely doable by simply training some trusted employees to temporarily take some of your tasks and prioritizing which of your responsibilities can be paused for just one week. 

Preparing Your Team for Your Vacation

There is a phenomenon that many business owners have experienced where team members will decide to quit the company while owners are on vacation. The most likely explanation for this behavior is they either have been meaning to quit and would rather not face you personally, or they resent you taking time off and decide to leave. There is an easy way to prevent that resentment from growing in your company: 

• Decide on your vacation time.
• Proclaim your vacation time to the team. 
• Encourage your team to do the same for themselves.
• Your team doesn’t resent you, and everyone stays.

When you plan your long vacation months in advance, and encourage all your team members to do the same, everyone feels included. Celebrate that time that each person gets to spend away from work with their families. Acknowledge that everyone benefits from some time away from their job. 

You can even implement a vacation board or incorporate it into your team calendar. The key is that everyone should feel supported when planning, scheduling and talking about their vacation time. Plus, when vacation time is transparent, everyone in the company can better prepare to pick up the slack for that length of time.

Communicating With Your Leaders

Another important way to ensure you can start taking these longer vacations — even for technicians and CSRs — is open dialogue with your managers or leaders. If you work with the right people, you should be able to use planning and communication to achieve longer vacation time. Sit down with your lead and talk about your goals for the next few years so that they are prepared to help you work towards taking a longer vacation. You’ll likely be surprised at how willing your team is to help get you to that point.

Service Excellence Believe in the Power of Rest

Not only does our team know how to push you the furthest in your career, we also know the incredible power that rest and recovery can have on your personal and professional success. If you are interested in more comprehensive industry knowledge, we have all the resources you need. Contact us today or visit our website to start living a healthier and more productive life!