Vaccications

The Monday after a long vacation is more than a little bittersweet.

I spent the past two weeks in Los Angeles, wandering art museums and soaking in the Malibu sun with family and friends who are usually far away. Yes, it was strange to be smooshed between strangers for hours on the flights — though my American Airlines attendants were strict about mask wearing. But most of all, it was thrilling, then wholly relaxing, to be somewhere other than home for the first time in a year and a half. Thanks, Moderna!

Against the backdrop of remote work and response to cascading crises, there are plenty of white collar professionals who, like me, have banked a ton of PTO as they refrained from vacationing during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. (This, despite the pleas to take time off even for staycations to boost mental health — after all, work-from-home burnout is real.) Now, while the health crisis isn't over, travel in the United States is surging and historically-bad-at-using-our-vacation-time American workers are finally expected to put those hours to use. As The Atlantic put it in an April headline: "For One Glorious Summer, Americans Will Vacation Like the French."

Tell us about your summer plans. How are you planning to use your PTO, if you have it? If you're in management, how are you encouraging employees to take time off? Or how are you dealing with an influx of PTO requests at once? And has the pandemic changed our relationship with work breaks forever? I'd love to hear about it all: Reply here or email baltimore@technical.ly. We may use your response in a story.

— Technical.ly Managing Editor Julie Zeglen (julie@technical.ly)