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.

Emergency Fund – An amount of money equal to about 3-6 months standard household expenses (including housing, all bills and utilities, and food money) in a safe but easily accessible account somewhere. Emergency funds should NOT be used for anything except true emergencies. That means they are NOT used for making up ‘a little shortfall’ or to pay off bills.

I found out yesterday that it’s a GOOD thing to have an emergency fund nowadays.

You, You and YOU, Come with Me

As a consultant, my job isn’t 100% work. There are times that I am on the ‘bench’ between assignments. The company I work for was acquired by a larger company late last year and they have slowly been integrating the two companies together.

I actually changed jobs WHILE the company was being acquired (which was scary to say the least) and first heard about the merger during my two weeks notice switchover. I was a bit concerned that being the new guy, that I would also be the first to hit the street.

At that point, I had saved up a respectable emergency fund that would probably last a couple of months. But I went into save mode for the first few paychecks to make sure;

• I canceled my 401k contributions for a month before the job change (knowing that a change was coming up, and we were in negotiations for awhile with 2nd, 3rd and 4th interviews going on).
• I upped my W2 dependent deductions.
• I paid off or consolidated as many bills as I could with what I had.

What this allowed me to do is switch to ‘Save for the Winter’ mode. I was able to (temporarily) put away 75% of my take-home pay into a savings account.

Doing this for a couple of months allowed me to get to the 3-6 month savings mark in a very short amount of time. Once I reached that stage, I switched all this money flow into maxing out my 401k contributions for the year (which took only another 1 1/2 months). And then I went back to my normal schedule.

Stand Over By That Wall

You see, the company that I originally hired on with had a reputation for having a LONG bench, and quite a few people ON that bench. They were high-end business process re-engineering consultants and process improvement gurus. These kind of people don’t grow on trees, and when they walk in the door, people stop and listen. The only problem is that they are also high-bill rate, low-engagement type of employees. When they’re on the job, they make LOTS of money for the company, but getting them those jobs is difficult at the best of times. With the recession causing companies to reconsider anything ‘extraneous’ (i.e. anything they can’t live without).

So, how did I fall in with this group? I’m a Program Manager and Enterprise Architect (wear both hats) and have a long track record with building accounts and software development teams.  I can deal with clients, corporate headquarters, and all levels of developers and get the ideas across to all of them. I work like the glue that makes it all stick together.

Even with that, I ended up on the bench myself the first few months of my job, because the client I was ‘intended’ to go work for didn’t pan out like everyone thought they would. This wouldn’t have concerned any of the employees at the old company, but I’ve been around long enough to know that most big benches eventually go away.

Would You Like a Cigarette?

The first chance I got, I jumped at a long-term engagement, even though it’s 1 1/2 hrs drive from home. It’s actually not that bad a drive, just long. The client is great, the co-workers are good, and the work is interesting, so it’s not too bad.

The clincher is that I just heard yesterday that 11 other people in my department were let go yesterday. This, out of a pool of about 30 people. It even affected some of the upper-management chain (the manager for those people). It was a shock, but not COMPLETELY unexpected.

It made me think about how a little good planning (emergency fund) and luck (finding a good, long-term gig) can keep your life on track.

Since you can’t really ‘plan’ for good luck, you CAN make sure that you’re covered in case of Bad Things ™  happening to you. 

(Bang!)