I see this over and over again with myself, my colleagues, my friends, and strangers on the internet. My company is pushing us to use our PTO really hard and many of us are taking advantage of that, but the vast majority of people I know report that taking time off, while relaxing at the time, is actually having the opposite effect it should. People, including myself, are falling into worse periods of anxiety and depressive symptoms after returning than they were feeling before their break. I’ve heard so many people say in the last couple of years, “why did I even bother taking time off? Feels like it didn’t do anything, and I feel like I need another one already.”
Five to ten years ago, I don’t remember hearing this kind of response from taking PTO. So what’s different? If you have experienced this feeling of “oh I shouldn’t have even bothered apparently”, why do you think that’s happening now?
Asking mostly to see if there might be any solutions to this – most of us have to work to live, and some are fortunate enough to have paid time off they can use for recovery and rejuvenation. Is there a way we, or companies, should be approaching paid time off differently so it has the intended effect of letting us actually “reset”?