Rest Is a Responsibility Too

 So, I recently went on my annual leave. That sacred time when your workplace says, “Go rest, we’ll be fine!” and you respond with “I’m out of here!” I was so ready. I’d mentally packed my bags weeks before, counting down like it was Christmas.

Then I got home. No emails. No phone calls. No “quick” requests. And to my surprise… I panicked.

Why wasn’t anyone calling? Did they replace me? Did the office forget I exist? I started feeling like a guest star in a show that had moved on without me. And yet wasn’t this the same me who was chanting “I need a break!” just a week ago?

It hit me: sometimes, we forget that rest is not just a break from work. It's part of the work. The real gag? I had worked six months straight without proper rest. So when my team respected my leave and let me be, it should’ve been a standing ovation moment. But there I was, sitting on my couch, wrestling with guilt and FOMO. The audacity!

What helped was detaching. I deliberately didn’t open my work inbox (a personal win!). I spent time at home real time. I saw what happens when I’m not running on schedule. I reconnected with friends. I even had moments of total boredom glorious, mind-wandering boredom.

And here's the lesson: if you don’t give yourself permission to rest, no one else truly can. Because even when they do, you’ll still be thinking about what you're missing instead of what you're gaining. I had to learn that rest doesn’t mean being forgotten. It means being human. And being human means we need to pause.

So yes, I went back to work refreshed, inbox exploding but heart full. Rest is a responsibility, not a reward. And I’ll take it again, guilt-free, please and thank you.