Do you ever feel guilty when taking time off?

[Shortie]

One thing I have always been told when it comes to work or even the internet is that you always need to ensure that you make time for yourself to do something that you enjoy so as to not get burned out on what you do for work or not to feel affected mentally from the internet. This can in some cases leave people feeling guilty for taking that time to themselves away from working and that can lead to stress as well when you feel like you are doing wrong when you do need that break.

Do you ever feel guilty for taking a break and having time off away from work or even the internet?

 

[Arantor]

Part of the problem at my company is that we're small, so if some things break, there's a reasonable chance I'll get called out unless I'm "uncontactable". It happened the week before Christmas when I was on holiday (but others weren't) that I got called to look at something.

But even when I'm not at work, I feel very much like I should be doing something and time not spent doing something productive is time wasted and I have trouble with that.

 

[Kyng]

I don't feel guilty about taking time off from work: I have those days of annual leave for a reason .

However, I do feel bad about taking time off from the internet... especially if trouble starts up when I'm gone, and I'm not there to handle it!

 

[Cory]

I don't think I feel this type of guilt very often, if at all. I had to take many LOAs when I worked at Walmart due to having reoccurring anxiety attacks. I don't really regret taking those LOAs because I needed to recuperate from my mental health. I generally never took off for the heck of it, usually, there was always a valid reason I took off.

 

[Mjc]

I'm not a robot, so I can't and won't kill myself because of work. When it's time for me to take a break, I will pause everything no matter the urgency and go off. I will come back to it whenever I'm done with my break. It's who's alive that's going to work.

 

[Reverie]

As a teacher it is hard to really feel comfortable taking time off. Making sub plans is awful, but then if no one picks up the job, then you have to hope who ever is in the room is actually getting the kids to do anything. I hate taking off. The only thing I didn't mind taking off for was my honeymoon/wedding prep and at that I only took 2 days for that. When sick I feel terrible I have to miss. I needed some mental health days but of course I never got those. And I used up all my days last year due to all the illnesses and what not. So I even took 1 day off that I didn't get paid for.

 

[Kyng]

Not really, if it's annual leave .

I only feel a bit guilty if I take a sick day, and then end up doing fun or productive things. But that's rare: I'm usually too unwell!