Today I am taking a personal day. One of my challenges the whole time I have been in Germany is finding a way to consume all of my vacation (Urlaub) days during the calendar year. The law pretty much states that one has to use ALL their days within a certain time period; otherwise the days will be "lost."
During my first few years in Germany, I was so caught up in getting my ass kicked by the customer, who never stopped pressuring us on the project that I was managing. As a result, I never could take all my holidays, as (in my opinion) there was no time. Every year I got a real telling off from my employer, who seemed to forget that he was the one that had overloaded me in the first place. I always got frustrated during these conversations, since I recognized that a part of self-discipline is to manage one's time, including holidays. Part of me was irritated with myself for never able to do this so well.
I am secretly jealous of the mentality that most of my German friends have. They simply take their holidays and separate themselves from the job. I still remember a story I heard years ago, where some high level manager said, "Hey, I know that the factory burned down, and all the goods in the warehouse were destroyed. Na ja, I was on vacation."
I think it is the idea that people simply walk away from the responsibility that troubles me. I know, that this is mostly perception on my part, and over the years as I worked to improve my work-personal life balance, I do recognize that one simply must distance themselves from things from time to time. This includes really switching off from work.
Over the years where I have had anxious moments as the stress has reached a super high level, I better understand statements like, "Just let it go," or "Joel, sometimes you have to say what the fuck."
Easier said than done, of course.
Anyway, this brings me to 2018, where I found myself ending the month of February with four remaining vacation days to take before the end of March.
My solution? Take every Friday off.
Actually, I kind of like doing the four day work week. I made no plans for any long weekends away, not because I don't like traveling, but rather I enjoy kind of having a little quiet time around the house where I can do something I want to do. In short, focus on making it a "personal" day.
For me, this tends to include rather mundane activities, but I also try and do a few things that are not so routine. When I was submitting my time off requests the other week, I decided to make a little list of all the things that I have been wanting to do, but never seemed to find the time for.
Although several items are related to the end of winter/coming of spring, a few items from my list include:
-clean out the older paperwork I have accumulated over the past decade
-thoroughly clean my balcony
-file my US tax return
-clean the oven (uggh)
-take all the sweaters and coats into the dry cleaners for end of season (this task I will likely need to postpone another few weeks, as freezing temperatures and snow are in this morning's weather forecast)
I can appreciate that some people might consider this list rather boring.
"Why aren't you going to go do something fun and exciting?" I can imagine a few friends might ask.
The fact is, I like doing some of these things, and like having the feeling of having sufficient time to complete the task at my own pace. OK, maybe the oven cleaning will not be that fun, but I do expect to feel quite gratified once it's been done.
We won't change our clocks for another couple of weeks, but as always, I am starting to wake up a little earlier as it gets light outside. This morning was no exception. I was awake at 6h45, and was only slightly irritated that I was getting up so early on a vacation day. However, I quite enjoyed sitting on the balcony with my first coffee of the day, listening to the birds singing.
You see, I am trying to use the personal day to do stuff that I want to do. If that happens to be diddly squat, then so be it. Today's agenda is not overly full, so I can leisurely do a few things that I feel like doing, at my own pace.
As always, I am sort of "on-call" with regard to work. That being said, I am very comforted by the fact that my work email notifies everyone that I am not in the office, so it will be a quiet day.
And a day that I plan to enjoy.
see you out there
bryan
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