Why I Hate Vacation Time Off

Oh, how we all long for time off too, don’t we? But have you noticed the weird phenomenon that occurs when you go off on vacation – be it the Christmas holiday or the vacation-by-the-lake kind? The working world senses you’re about to leave and pounds you with projects. Then you come back to …. silence. It’s as though you’ve died or have been transported to another planet.

And it’s as though now you’re reinventing your career. Now you have to market more than usual (or more than nothing – you didn’t think I knew that, do you?). You have to scrounge up work and clients and there’s this little sinking feeling in your gut that makes a bit of room for self-doubt. Or is that just me?

The ideal situation is to set up work to come back to, but even that is dependent on client schedules. Still, knowing there’s a magazine article assignment waiting can be a good thing (unless, like me, you stress about leaving the office with deadlines pending). I have one regular gig that keeps me well afloat in the lean times, but when that’s the only job I have going and the first week of January is already history, I’m going to get nervous. News flash – I’m already nervous.

Luckily, clients are trickling back in. I’m sure now that I’m off this week, there will be some urgency to at least one pending project. Amen. I love urgency when I’m idle. It sort of validates my existence. To me, anyway.

So how to you prepare for that post-vacation silence? What’s worked for you? What hasn’t?