nothing for a half-hour to wind down enough to be ready to sleep. It's pretty difficult for me to do nothing, but I usually get there in about 15 minutes. I think of it as a countdown. At T-120, I stop eating or drinking. At T-30, I wash up. At T-15, I start doing nothing. At T-0, I turn off the lights and crawl into bed. At T+5 I'm...zzzzzzz.
Vacation Time
Let me tell you a little secret about vacation time.
Companies don't give you time off because they want to be nice to you. They aren't doing it to be charitable.
They're doing it because you're difficult to work with when you are stressed. Let me say that a little more forcefully: when you postpone taking time off, you become a pain in the ass to everyone in the office, and we don't like working with you. You're irritable, difficult, and disagreeable. SO TAKE TIME OFF, DAMN IT!
Sorry for yelling, but it's for your own good.
A successful vacation takes your mind off work enough so that it can relax. It may take several days to forget about work enough so that you are in full relaxation mode. Only then can your body repair itself. I need at least three days to get to relaxation mode, and then six or more days of relaxation to really feel refreshed. Add a couple travel days and a day to get back into the swing of things, and we're talking 12 to 14 days for a really successful vacation. You deserve at least as much.
Let's look at some common vacation mistakes that system administrators make:
Using an occasional vacation day to run errands, do laundry, etc. That's not a vacation. That's using vacation time, but it doesn't meet the goal of relaxing. Maybe you can use comp time for errands or come into work early and take an hour or two off during the day to run errands.
Taking a long weekend. That's sort of like a vacation, but it skips the multiday process of getting to relaxation mode. Plus, when I try this, I end up with a backlog of weekend chores. That creates even more stress. A series of long weekends doesn't count either.
Bringing your laptop and checking email every few hours while on vacation. If you check email during your vacation, you never really relax. Every time you check your email you put your brain back in work mode and you need another three days to return to relax mode. Most hotels provide Internet access for a small charge. I want a hotel that, for a small charge, promises that I will be completely prevented from getting anywhere near any kind of Internet access.
Not checking email is difficult. Very difficult. When I take a real vacation I have to coordinate to have my VPN access shut off, or I will not be able to prevent myself from reading email. It's a sickness.
The first few days of a vacation I tend to have work on my mind. I find that if I'm having trouble letting go, it can be useful to write down what's on my mind so that it will be there when I return to work. Otherwise, I'll try to keep the idea in my brain, and that just prevents me from letting go.
I've heard system administrators brag about not taking vacation. 'This company can't survive without me! I'm proud that I haven't had a vacation in years.' I cringe when I hear this. As a manager, I fear an SA may develop a martyr complex. A person with a
Tip
I feel less cornered when I can leave a job easily and without guilt. Keeping good documentation helps that. Chapter 12 explains how to make it easier to document processes.
A long vacation has another business benefit—it helps determine where your coverage and/or documentation is lacking. Good system administrators assume that they may be hit by a truck tomorrow and the company should be able to continue without them. Taking a long vacation is one way to test that theory without suffering bodily harm.
Here's my advice about taking a vacation:
Two weeks before you leave, figure out what coverage is needed and spend time training the person who is covering for you.
The week before you leave, make sure that the person can do
