<story><title>Burnout can exacerbate work stress, further promoting a vicious circle</title><url>https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/aktuell/12451_ENG_HTML.php</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>echelon</author><text>I just want a no-pay sabbatical. Three months, total reset of energy levels.&lt;p&gt;We should all have that option.&lt;p&gt;I would take a lot less money (-$50k or more) if I got to take a quarter off every year.&lt;p&gt;Four day work weeks would be another compelling alternative. Two days a week are not enough time to get chores done. There&amp;#x27;s no time for relaxing.&lt;p&gt;If I ever create a company, I&amp;#x27;d love to offer these options.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>refurb</author><text>When I switched jobs a few years back, I intentionally took a 6 week break between roles.  My new manager wanted me to start right away, but I pushed back and said &amp;quot;no&amp;quot;.  This was after working a job that had me doing 60-80 hr weeks for months on end.&lt;p&gt;I set it up so I had zero obligations at the start - no vacations planned, no &amp;quot;to do&amp;quot; lists.  I would get up in the morning and ask myself &amp;quot;what do I need to get done today?&amp;quot; and the answer was &amp;quot;nothing&amp;quot;.  It was really glorious.&lt;p&gt;After a couple weeks of doing whatever I wanted - reading, going for a walk, meeting a friend for coffee, I felt my background anxiety level had diminished a lot.  Then I started into the phase of &amp;quot;what do I want to get done before I start working again&amp;quot;.  None of it was &amp;quot;must do&amp;quot;, but rather cleaning up the garden, fixing the car, taking care of financial paperwork.  The next few weeks felt incredibly low pressure and highly productive.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a great way to get into a healthy mindset, at least for me.</text></comment>
<story><title>Burnout can exacerbate work stress, further promoting a vicious circle</title><url>https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/aktuell/12451_ENG_HTML.php</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>echelon</author><text>I just want a no-pay sabbatical. Three months, total reset of energy levels.&lt;p&gt;We should all have that option.&lt;p&gt;I would take a lot less money (-$50k or more) if I got to take a quarter off every year.&lt;p&gt;Four day work weeks would be another compelling alternative. Two days a week are not enough time to get chores done. There&amp;#x27;s no time for relaxing.&lt;p&gt;If I ever create a company, I&amp;#x27;d love to offer these options.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nprz</author><text>I was laid off near the tail end of a very stressful, deadline driven project and it actually came as a huge relief. Luckily I had money saved and took my time (about 3 months) looking for the next job. Was also given 2 months severance, so I didn&amp;#x27;t even end up losing much income. By end of my time off I was getting bored and happy to be working on something new. Highly recommended.</text></comment>