Friday, January 30, 2009

Going back to work after days off

OU was closed for 2 1/2 days this week due to the icy weather. So yesterday was the first day back. Our neighborhood is awful so Dan drove me to work. I was the only one there. I had piles of emails and phone messages. I had to cover for two other people. And answer all the phone lines. And greet anyone coming in the office. All of this becomes rather difficult when your office is located all the way in the back of the office space and your phone doesn't ring for all lines and you rely on 40-something hearing. So it was 12:30 before I ate lunch and went home exhausted. Today I at least had someone else in the office but she was trying to catch up on all her work plus everything I had sent her yesterday. I decided about 3pm that I needed a vacation to recuperate from the 2 1/2 days off and being back to work for almost 2 days.

That got me thinking about the value of vacations. We all love to take vacations. Vacations are supposed to reinvigorate ourselves into being able to handle our everyday lives. I have so much vacation time that I could take off 6 weeks and still get paid for it all. But I never seem to take time off. I feel guilty for a day off. I check my email 3 times by 10am if I'm off for a day. And the whole value of a vacation to rest and have fun turns to pain and suffering when you get back to work and have piles of work that cause instant stress and overtime.

Dan asked me tonight what we were going to do for spring break in six weeks. Do I dare think that a week off in March would relax me to the point that I could survive April? Stay tuned.

1 comment:

  1. Maybe you should consider a trip up to Washington. I'm sure a three day trip to see your six nieces and nephews would be very relaxing... :)

    Better idea, we could leave all the kids home and meet somewhere in the middle, just the adults.

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