Sachin H. Jain: Take your vacations. Don’t be a martyr. Almost no one notices your martyrdom.
Quoting Sachin H. Jain, President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan, on LinkedIn:
“Several years ago, I decided to take a two-week vacation after not having taken one for two years and two months in a new role. About a week into my vacation, I received a phone call from my boss who wasn’t usually interested in details like my holiday schedule.
Boss: Sachin, people are saying you are on a really long vacation and that things aren’t getting done because they’d like your input before they move forward. Maybe you shouldn’t take as long a vacation next time…
Me: I was speechless and I was fuming. “I haven’t taken a vacation in two years…Who were these people?”
Boss: I can’t say. But maybe you should…
Me: Well-if you can’t say, then tell this “person” or “people” to mind their own business.
Boss: Just make sure things can keep going in your absence.
Me: I haven’t taken a vacation in more than 2 years. Whoever you are talking to didn’t know and/or omitted that important detail from your conversation. They can mind their own business.
Boss: Just make sure things keep moving while you are out. Take it easy.
I hung up the phone. It occured to me that I knew exactly who the person was. Ahhhhh….So many things were wrong with this situation.
1) I learned that the issue that was raised was not actually an important /urgent one. It could wait for me to return. It was just urgent for that person in that moment—but actually wasn’t that important.
2) My colleague has complained that I was on a vacation—not to me—but to my boss. What prevented her from reaching out to me if she really needed my input? It was an extreme form of passive aggressiveness. I would never trust that colleague again.
3) Little value was given to me and the fact that I hadn’t taken a vacation in my whole time in my new role. I thought I was being heroic not taking my vacations—but no one noticed and, in fact, presumed the opposite when I did elect to take one. That i was reckless about taking my vacation. When I hadn’t taken a single day off in two years!
4) There was little concern about actually bothering me on my vacation—which now felt somewhat ruined by my colleague and my boss (given especially that I remember this call years and years later).
I always think about that call from my boss when I sometimes feel compelled to call a colleague on vacation. It almost certainly can wait. And I never make the call. And I always think about how often no one notices when you’re grinding away for a company or cause. Take your vacations. Don’t be a martyr. Almost no one notices your martyrdom. And I always remember it when someone whispers a complaint about a colleague rather than first directing the issue to the person—always says more about the person than the real issue at hand. It’s a good signal that there’s a nefarious cultural cancer in your midst.”
Source: Sachin H. Jain/LinkedIn.