10 Reasons to Go on Vacation

Sound Business Practices

Guest blogger Patty Azzarello shares with us one of her not-so-obvious secrets to success. Patty was the youngest general manager at HP at the age of 33, ran a $1B software business at the age of 35, and became CEO for the first time at 39. So you may want to pay close attention to what this success expert has to say.

As it is the summer, I thought I would share 10 of the many sound business reasons to go on vacation — in addition to the fact that you deserve it and are supposed to enjoy your life and have some fun…

1. Going on a vacation shows you are competent at your job because you can manage and plan enough to free up some time in your schedule, and not leave a festering mess in your absence. Not being able to take a vacation for years shows that your work and your team are so out of control that you can’t even be gone for a week.

2. No one is impressed that you have not had a vacation. If you think your company, or your team appreciates your extra-work ethic, they don’t. 

3. Your team is motivated from seeing that you support and allow people to have a life — as long as you don’t send them email every day! Set the expectation you will be generally out of touch. Arrange 1-2 check-in points if you can’t stand to let go entirely, but don’t just go somewhere else and keep working.

4. Your team gets more productive when you go away. You give them a break from worrying about all the things you throw in their way when they are trying to get their work done. After about 2 weeks they will miss you and need you again, but in the mean time their productivity will actually go up.

5. Being unavailable is an effective technique for developing people. It forces them to step up. Just be careful not to un-do everything they did in your absence just because it was different than the way you would have done it.

6. If something comes up in your work that you can’t avoid and you need to cancel your vacation, reschedule another one while you are canceling. This will minimize resentment and disappointment, give you something to look forward to… and ensure you don’t go too long without a vacation.

7. You will be more productive at work, if you step away from it and give your back-of-mind processes a chance to chew on things while you are otherwise in a good (or at least different!) mood. 

8. You will realize that some of the things that you thought were important before your vacation don’t actually need to get done after all. When you step away, the most strategic things re-assert themselves and all the clutter drops several notches in volume.

9. Your company prefers people who enjoy their life because they have more positive energy to bring to their work.

10. You need a break whether you know it or not!

If you're still not convinced or just don't think you can afford a vacation, take a 15-minute virtual vacation to the Maasai Mara in Kenya. Then notice the difference.