I recently got back from a week-long vacation only to find that things had descended into one of the seven rings of Hell. Admittedly it was one of the upper rings, but it still had caused quite a bit of disruption for just one person leaving. I’m not saying I’m in a critical position at work, but I am the one that monitors and assigns work when things start to slack.

Having been gone for a week, people had started getting lax on turning in stuff on time and had run out of things to do without notifying anyone about it. Additionally, some problems had come up that had a couple of people road-blocked, with no one to get the issues resolved. It added up to a general work slowdown.

After a week back, we’re getting back up to speed, but we lost some of that week in the ‘no-work limbo’ and are having to answer for it. Now the thing that has me scratching my head is “I feel guilty for having gone on vacation!”

The trip to DisneyLand was wonderful, and it was a vacation that I will remember for the rest of my life. The kids had a fantastic time, and the wife (who is a Disneyaholic) was almost in Disney-overload. Other than the expense, it was a near-perfect vacation. Shouldn’t that be enough to prevent any guilty feelings?

I’m Not the Person I Thought I Was

I’ve found over the years that I’ve slowly turned into an “A” type person, through no real intention or plan. It just kind of happened. I went from the person in high school that wouldn’t do his assignments until the night before (and sometimes in the class before they were due) to someone that works into the night to get that report done, that, let’s face it, is going to be skim-read by about three people, if I’m lucky. When did work become so important??

Some of it is the location I’m in. The ‘Midwest Work Ethic’ is something that I’ve always heard about all across the United States. The conservative, farm-based communities, where the people get up at or before dawn and work until well after dark. That does happen around here, but I’m no farmer.

This work ethic does carry over to a lot of jobs though. Most positions I’ve been in over the last 6-7 years have been either management or partial management. The expectations increase the higher up the food chain you go. It still caught me by surprise though that I felt guilty for taking a vacation.

All Work and No Play Makes America a Dull Nation

On average, the United States takes significantly less vacations than other industrialized nations in the world. Most businesses give a standard two-weeks of paid vacation, while most European countries start at around four weeks and go up from there. Even with those two weeks, it’s often a battle to get ‘approved’ time off from work. They don’t want to let you go, even for a minute.

I’ve reached that stage in life where I am starting to realize that it isn’t going to do me that much more good to dedicate my entire life to work. But at the same time, that causes the guilt pangs to sharpen, as on the other side of the coin, I feel like I might be letting down my co-workers when they need me. It’s a strange dichotomy.

Vacations are fantastic for re-energizing you, and to get you ready to pursue life and work at full speed. So why do so many businesses seem to try to get you to NOT take vacations?

I’m not giving up on my vacations, but I still haven’t reconciled these strange feelings of guilt either.

So I’m asking the readers to leave comments on their experiences with vacation guilt. Maybe there’s a common thread here that needs discovering and investigating.