This is the number one employee benefit you’re not taking advantage of

I’m embarrassed with how I used to think about paid time off. I prided myself as a person as someone who never took it.

I remember only taking a week of paternity leave after my first kid. Reflecting on this brings me instant regret.

Gah, just writing about it makes my gut churn. What kind of message am I sending to my wife?

Yay, wife! I’ll make sure that I at least appear to keep working hard and leave you to fend for yourself in with child rearing.

Embarrassing. Worst part about this is that I shamefully did this not once, but twice.

I frowned at others who regularly scheduled trips for their quarterly R&R. This was usually the same person who left a little bit before 5pm.

It’s 4:30p,, bro. Really? We leaving right now? Am I on a team with a bunch of casuals or are we playing championship?

How I appeared to work looked a lot like this:

  • First in, last out. Gotta show I’m committed!
  • Don’t ever use PTO.

The primary motivation for doing this was develop the optics as a hard-working team member on mission. The sad part about this is was actually less about being on mission and more about developing a reputation. This is actually a deep rooted insecurity but that's for another atomic essay.

If only I had spent more of that time developing effective working habits we all know that I could have easily spent 20% less time in the office and have been at least 50% more effective at the same time. Those numbers are made up but probably aren’t that far fetched.

Here’s the point: If you’re not taking time off at regular intervals you’re undervaluing rest. When you undervalue rest, you’re actually undervaluing other aspects of your life that actually set you up to perform better everywhere else.