Finding holiday time…
Every June I suddenly seem to be in a race to use up my annual leave before the holiday calendar ends in July. I always remind my students to make sure they take holiday time, yet still I seem to have a silly number of days to use or loose. So why is this and how can I make changes?
Never the right time
The challenge with the academic calendar can be finding the right time to take leave – in semester there is teaching, outside of term conferences, grant applications and papers to publish. This year June is full of meetings, July grant bid deadlines, August admissions, and September often becomes a month of teaching prep. I’ve noticed some of my colleagues are very good at planning their leave, they seem to find the sweet spots in the diary and get their holiday booked in. I’ve now concluded there is simply no ‘right’ time to take a break, I think you just need to take leave!
Feeling like you don’t need / can’t take a break
Although academia is known for long hours, there is some flexibility to control your workload activities. Recently I have wondered if this ability to work a schedule that in part suits your wider activities in some way diminishes the feeling of needing holiday? But there are also always so many tasks to be completed, there can be the underlying vibe that there is no time for holiday. Add in to the mix that academics are driven by a love of their subject – so the opportunity to research our favourite subject during a ‘holiday’ period may feel like a fun vacation - and perhaps this is the reason that leave is not booked?
Booking that leave
I’ve decided some new tactics are needed to make sure I don’t forfeit my leave allowance. Starting with booking in a few days across the year right at the start of the annual leave period. Next up is an end of month check to make sure that I am using up my holiday allowance and not ‘saving’ it all. I need to stop trying to find the optimum time to take a break and instead, just take the holiday. The work will be there, no matter which month I opt to have some time away. I realise just how fortunate I am to work a job with a decent holiday allowance, so now I just need to use it!
Caroline, Dr CST