We want to climb the ladder, get that corner office, and
bring home the bacon. All of this while
wanting to have a spouse, watch your kids recital, and go to SXSW. It’s impossible. No, it’s not impossible to have it all, but
it’s impossible to think you’re going to get it all if you leave nothing for
yourself. I’m 28 years old and my career
has been quite lucrative until now, and I don’t see that changing anytime
soon. There’s been times when I’ve
worked 10+ hour days, slept 4 hours, and skipped my lunch break all to get
ahead and stay ahead. Then one day, my
body stopped me. I couldn’t seem to
sleep enough, couldn’t stay motivated at work, and was not trying to be clever
with office politics. I realized then, I’m
too young to be burnout. Somewhere along
the way, taking a mental day or a vacation become taboo. It became that the person with the most
vacation and sick leave built up was a great worker; ideal worker. WRONG.
How can you give your best to the world when you’re not taking care of
yourself? How do you think you’re going
to be fresh and charismatic when you don’t take care of yourself? You can’t give the world everything when you
have nothing left to give.
I believe wholeheartedly that the person you need to take
care of the best is yourself. Normally I
do a list of some sort, but I wanted to provide you with two letters. I’m kinda going rouge here:
To upper management:
You
give vacation, personal, and sick days yet it’s a problem when we take
them. Why is that? Is it best to come into the office sick and
infect everyone else; that takes away from productivity right? Ok. Or
after weeks of battling the office defamation while landing the big client, we
take a personal Friday and you look at us with disappointment. Why is that?
Is it best to come into the office drained and exhausted and give less
than 100% to the project? Didn’t think so.
Not all of us are going to take advantage of the system. We don’t want to take a week of vacation
after a week of ‘fake sick leave’. When we’re
at work, we want to work and work hard, but when we need a time to collect ourselves
or just take care of ourselves, we don’t deserve to be questioned or penalized
by it. We want to take care of ourselves
so we can put a good product out and in turn make ourselves and YOU look
better. So what is it? Why is ‘butts in seats’ valued over self-care
and quality production?
Signed,
A Millennial With Questions
To Millennials,
Take
care of yourself. Don’t abuse the system
and leave just to leave. If you’re that unhappy with your job then you should
probably look for other employment.
Period. If you’re sick and need
to stay in bed for a few days, then yes do so.
If you’re exhausted from 2 weeks of 60+ hour weeks, and need a Friday
off; take it! There is nothing wrong
with making sure you’re in the right mind, body, and soul state. Just make sure you don’t miss important
meetings or deadlines. Think about it
this way; if you were to get fall ill and need to take medical leave, business
still will continue; your work will be passed on, and the operations won’t
stop. So why put yourself in harm’s way
to just have your ‘butt in a seat’? You can’t reach the heights in front of you
when you’re at 20%. Work hard and handle
your business, but if you need to get yourself together, please do that. When you’re at home, unplug from work, that ‘crisis’
can wait until 8 AM. Find a hobby that
doesn’t seem like work to you and do that, relax. Work isn’t the most important thing in your
life. Employers want healthy employees
and taking a break gives your batteries time to recharge. Speak with your boss about your concerns and
if your office doesn’t agree with your ‘mental break’ then assess if that’s the
office for you. Know what it takes to
keep going, and know when it’s time to take a me-cation. Don’t take a me-cation every week lol, but
know when you’re at your breaking point.
You’re boss, and production levels will thank me later.
Signed,
A Millennial Who Takes Her Own Advice
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