...or perhaps I've been around so long, my workplace can't tolerate me as much as before, so they are willing to pay me to stay away.
16 years is a long time to stay at any one workplace, especially in these days of high turnover rates and few if any incentives to stay long term. When I reached the 15 year mark almost a year ago, my paid vacation went from three weeks per year to four. Our department had some issues with staffing and there are two months where taking a vacation is not allowed, so I took one week last September and one in October. I understood the staffing issue, so in January, I told them I would take the remaining two weeks right before I would lose the time. (The fact it took more than 2 months, several reminders and a meeting with the my boss' boss' boss to finally approve it is another matter.)
It has been several years since I've taken two weeks in a row, and I must say I enjoy it. Mostly I take one week at a time and usually add a personal day and/or an unpaid day off plus a weekend to extend my time away to a week and a half.
I can feel a difference the second week makes. Now that I am in to my second week, I feel my stress level is much lower than it has been in several months and my happiness level is higher. However, it took a full week plus three days to really feel that way. I am enjoying this fourth week of vacation since last year.
Now to figure out how to use my next 4 weeks of vacation! ;-)
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