Vacation that won't be

I've said this before, but American (as in US of A) work culture never ceased to puzzle me. Culture appears to worship working, with expense of everything else. So many people work long hours, take no vacation and come in work when sick. I get that often it's about fear of losing the work for not being "busy enough", but really, such attitude is self-defeating.

It's well known that humans can't just work and work without losing efficiency. Working long hours seems productive, but with absolutely no exception, at some point the productivity will fall of sharply. If you don't have sufficient time to rest, productivity will plummet. Eventually you are only occupying a seat while producing even less than theoretical someone that work for four hours a day, four days a week schedule.

And then there is vacation. Some even seem to take a pride of never taking one - or they just fear being left behind. Like the work hours, this will backfire eventually. We aren't robots, we're not wired for working so much. A good vacation - week minimum, preferably two, without any work - will reset your brain and make you much, much more productive afterwards.

I have a small business, and because of it I can very rarely be fully away from work for longer time. I have unofficial personal policy of never bringing laptop with me when on vacation to force myself to keep away from work. I still have phone with me to answer calls, and email on phone, but I purposefully use very minimalistic email client to make using it as painful as possible to keep myself away from it, aside for things that just need to be addressed immediately.

It also helps that I have somehow managed to train my mind to drop trivial phone calls from my mind immediately. A customer may call to ask for something, I answer, and just minutes after the call wife can ask who was it and about what. And I have no recollection of that call. It was not something that I need to remember so I don't.

This makes vacations to work very well for resting. I usually bring a tablet (no email or work there, just games), loads of books and just relax. Swim, read, eat, drink, sleep. It works miracles.

All this is came painfully obvious to me just now, as first time in 15 or so years we aren't taking a vacation at Mediterranean or elsewhere further away. Partly because of Covid, partly for other reasons, but either way we aren't going. That appears to bother me way more than it should, and I came to realize that I always look forward of that week or two of just being away, relaxing. It just seems so impossible to do "back at home".

All the photos here are taken by me during our travels (from top: Söll, Austria; Dubrovnic, Croatia; Rethymnon, Crete/Greece; Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia) . At least I can browse them and dream of relaxing vacations on upcoming years... (and yes, I also do very painfully realize the environmental costs involved...)