Thursday, March 20, 2025

"๐—ฌ๐—ฎ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ, ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐˜‚๐˜๐˜๐—ถ ๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฒ!"

"๐—ฌ๐—ฎ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ, ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐˜‚๐˜๐˜๐—ถ ๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฒ!"

"When will you take some leaves?"
"Donโ€™t you think you should take a break?"
"Will you really let your leaves lapse?"
"Don't check your emails or Teams when you're on leave! Koshish toh Karo!"

No, these questions and diktats did not come from my family. 

Iโ€™ve never been one to take leave unless itโ€™s for an event, vacation, or family commitmentโ€”even when my health was ๐˜ฅ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ๐˜ช ๐˜ฅ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ช. The pandemic only reinforced this habit. But then came my latest boss. From mid-2024, he started encouraging everyone to take regular breaks to recharge. When I told him I usually let around 20 leaves lapse each year, he was genuinely intrigued.

From then on, during our catch-ups, he made it a point to nudge me about taking time off. He knew Iโ€™d readily update him on my work plans, but it was my leave plan that interested him more.

Eventually, in Q4 of last year, I gave in. I started taking a day off about once a week - ๐˜ข๐˜ช๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช - and even more often in December. What I experienced was pretty cool:

1. ๐—–๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น ๐—บ๐˜† ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐˜€โ€”weekday offs meant no long queues.


2. ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฐ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜๐˜„๐—ผ ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜†-๐—ฑ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€ I had been meaning to cancel for ages. Just parked myself at the insurerโ€™s office for two hours until they gave in.


3. ๐—•๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜† ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ, ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด๐˜€ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—พ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ ๐—ฏ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜. Got those done too. ๐˜“๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ช? ๐˜’๐˜ฐ๐˜ช ๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ช, ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ณ๐˜ถ๐˜ฌ๐˜ต๐˜ข ๐˜ฉ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ.


4. ๐—ฆ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜‚๐—ฝ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ธ ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐˜๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐˜€ used in technical analysis of stocks. The Hanging Man and Hammer are my favorites.


5. ๐—ฃ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜‚๐—ฝ ๐—ฎ ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—ธ... ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ณ ๐˜ธ๐˜ข๐˜ข๐˜ฑ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ฌ๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ช๐˜บ๐˜ข and binge-watched Netflix shows instead.


Did plenty more on these ๐˜ข๐˜ช๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช leave days, and now I try to take them more often.

Try taking a leave - ๐˜ข๐˜ช๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช - if you haven't. ๐—–๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น leaves kabhi leke dekho. It could be worth it.

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