I am currently writing this article on Thanksgiving Eve. My extended family is gathered around the cast iron wood stove in my aunt’s living room, drinking wine and reminiscing over the fall season that has quickly passed us by. Meanwhile, I am listening to their laughter from upstairs in a spare bedroom. Let’s rewind: I left campus on Tuesday afternoon, drove four hours home, watched a movie with my little sister, woke up today and drove six hours to my aunt’s house. The point in me recounting my travel details for you is to illustrate the lack of time that I’ve had to sit down at a computer and write this particular article. But in order to write this article, I am missing out on rare and precious time with the one’s that I love in order to meet a deadline for Her Campus. I can’t help but think to myself, how often will a similar scenario repeat itself in my future as a professional? The thought of that makes me shutter.
45% of working Americans report there’s “at least some chance” they will work on Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s according to an Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll. I’m not surprised by these statistics considering the amount of schoolwork that I must tackle during this Thanksgiving Break. This trend started earlier than college; I remember having entire books assigned over Spring Break in high school. As an American society, it seems we lack the ability to put down our work. And at what cost?
For me, school and extracurricular obligations that overflow into my break time result in a higher degree of stress, exhaustion, and frustration. I spend less time with my family, and the time that I do spend with them is slightly distracted until I’ve completed my assignments. I cannot speak for all of America, but I can speak for myself when I say that I need a break – a real break.
Consider what you’d like your holidays to look like in the future. Do you want to be punching in at the office on Christmas Eve or would you prefer to be partaking in the festivities with the ones you love? Will you be a boss that requires mundane tasks be completed on holidays in order to reap the monetary benefits or will you view your employees as parents, siblings, friends and human beings who deserve breaks? Food for thought during this holiday season.