I’m getting major surgery in two weeks and I’ll be on short term disability for an entire month afterwards. I’m honestly really looking forward to the time off, even if it’ll be full of physical suffering. My burnout outweighs the physical trauma of having nearly all of my reproductive organs removed.
I did the same, back during COVID lockdown. I think my body just started producing endorphins, because I stopped taking the painkillers and was totally at peace while everybody lost their minds over the isolation. I played The Outer Wilds and accepted that everything must end.
I feel guilty saying it, because I know I was in a privileged position, with a job that could be done remotely and living close to nature, but I fucking loved COVID lockdown. I can’t remember being so happy since childhood. Everything just slowed down, and I spent more time with my family.
I was on a work call the other day, listening to my peers complain about European work culture - “They just leave at 5:00 sharp, even if the project isn’t done! They’ll say ‘we’ll just pick it up in the morning and finish it then’ as if that’s good enough!” “You can’t contact them on weekends or vacations at all! They don’t even read and answer email!” “They take such long vacations! And just disappear! They won’t even take their work laptops with them or check in once! It’s so frustrating!”
I wanted to scream. Y’all realize we’re the crazy people, right?!
I was mostly joking :)
But also here I am with 35 paid vacation days (I also have maybe 13 paid days of parental leave left, which was initially 210 days, per child).
It is sad when you start considering going to rehab just to get 28-30 days away from work to de-stress, get sleep, meditate, do some inner work and work on healthy habits. Because if you are single and not reproducing, you don’t get maternity leave and if you are young or middle aged and relatively healthy, you aren’t getting any orthopedic surgeries that render you temporarily disabled… and if you already lost your parents, there is no family leave… I mean, I can adopt or pretend to adopt I have some kind of addictive habit but would prefer not to-- Can’t I just take a mental health leave of absence and then return to my job? One week here or there every 6 months (if I am lucky) is just not going to do it.
This is therapy. if I could just drop out of everything for 29 days I’d come back refreshed and Zen as fuck.
I’m getting major surgery in two weeks and I’ll be on short term disability for an entire month afterwards. I’m honestly really looking forward to the time off, even if it’ll be full of physical suffering. My burnout outweighs the physical trauma of having nearly all of my reproductive organs removed.
I did the same, back during COVID lockdown. I think my body just started producing endorphins, because I stopped taking the painkillers and was totally at peace while everybody lost their minds over the isolation. I played The Outer Wilds and accepted that everything must end.
I feel guilty saying it, because I know I was in a privileged position, with a job that could be done remotely and living close to nature, but I fucking loved COVID lockdown. I can’t remember being so happy since childhood. Everything just slowed down, and I spent more time with my family.
Isn’t that called vacation? Just don’t bring any communications device ;)
I don’t know many people that can afford a 29 day vacation (I’m in the US, and yes I’m jealous of what I hear about European benefits)
Yeah it’s pretty fantastic, even if by some miracle I don’t have to work, all I can afford to do is sit at home anyway.
I was on a work call the other day, listening to my peers complain about European work culture - “They just leave at 5:00 sharp, even if the project isn’t done! They’ll say ‘we’ll just pick it up in the morning and finish it then’ as if that’s good enough!” “You can’t contact them on weekends or vacations at all! They don’t even read and answer email!” “They take such long vacations! And just disappear! They won’t even take their work laptops with them or check in once! It’s so frustrating!”
I wanted to scream. Y’all realize we’re the crazy people, right?!
I was mostly joking :) But also here I am with 35 paid vacation days (I also have maybe 13 paid days of parental leave left, which was initially 210 days, per child).
10/10 would recommend being born here.
If I could drop out of everything for 29 days, I wouldn’t come back at all.
That’s about 1 standard stint in rehab where I’m from
It is sad when you start considering going to rehab just to get 28-30 days away from work to de-stress, get sleep, meditate, do some inner work and work on healthy habits. Because if you are single and not reproducing, you don’t get maternity leave and if you are young or middle aged and relatively healthy, you aren’t getting any orthopedic surgeries that render you temporarily disabled… and if you already lost your parents, there is no family leave… I mean, I can adopt or pretend to adopt I have some kind of addictive habit but would prefer not to-- Can’t I just take a mental health leave of absence and then return to my job? One week here or there every 6 months (if I am lucky) is just not going to do it.