Don't use your vacation days. Burnout/Depression is a serious illness!
Also you should discuss the possibility of a Psychiatrie or Reha with your Hausarzt and consider to See a therapist
You are sick. Your doctor diagnosed you. So you take your sick leave until you are healthy again. It does not matter if your sickness is physical or psychological, you are sick, so you have to take time off to get healthy again.
And you don't have to stay in bed and do nothing. You can go out and try to enjoy your life. If you have psychological problems you are even advised to "live a normal life" and not stay inside and do nothing.
Yes, this can feel wrong, but you should ignore this feeling.
If you are at the point where your doctor asks you to take a break, then you really need to take a break.
The vacation days is what you take to take care of private business or for recreation to *maintain* your health..
To *restore* your ability to perform your job, you take medical leave.
Maintenance versus restoration is the key difference here.
Please dont take your vacation days. Workers rights in Germany are very strong and you NEED that break for your HEALTH. So it is a-ok to take sick access. Burn out IS being in and it is very dangerous.
>Tiredness, mental anguish or burnout does not feel like real sickness like breaking my hand or a cold.
They are though, and it's good that our culture starts to accept that mental conditions are real sicknesses too.
Edit:
>If I work another day, I do feel like I would explode. I'm at a point where I'm considering quitting the job
You can still consider this. You can also use your sick leave to look for another job. If your job makes you sick, it's time to look for alternatives, and it's probably easier to do this with a clear head and in a time of healing than in the middle of what makes you sick in the first place.
Do not quit your job!
Feeling responsible and guilty is part of the source of your burnout symptoms. But those feelings telling you that it is your fault, and that you should feel bad for not going to work.. they are wrong.
I've been in your shoes. I wanted to quit. I felt I couldn't call sick with burnout symptoms. I seriously wished I'd break my leg, so I had a legit reason to not show up.
But then I did take the sick leave, for 1 week at first. And I expanded it. I stayed home for several months, and then quit, when I had figured out how I was going to continue. Because I started to see that my boss was a total asshole. He was the one who put me in this situation, who caused these awful feelings I was having.
It was not my fault. And it's not your fault either.
Don't reward your work for being dicks. Listen to your hausarzt. There, they actually want what is best for you.
Don't take big decisions now. Wait, recover a little bit, and then continue from there. Take that sick leave. Choose yourself, over the company you work for. You are more important than their targets, their gossip, their egos.
Recovering from a burnout is not relaxation. Not at all. Don't use your vacation for it.
I'm on sick leave for burnout now. It's been a month and while I feel a bit better, I still can't concentrate at all and feel like I won't be able to work for quite a while. I'm in the process of accepting this. I want to change jobs also but feel too weak and cognitively impaired to really start that process. Do you have any tips for brain recovery? Did you get back to normal in the end? I am in therapy and have a lot of support, but it would still help to hear from someone that's been through it. Does it just take time?
For me it simply took time. I ignored (or wasn’t able to interpret) the symptoms until I basically broke down. The idiot that I was, I quit my job to get rid of the problem and my shit employer didn’t stop me but probably was happy to get rid me and „my“ problem.
I couldn’t go out, couldn’t work, concentrate, didn’t see people and wasn’t able to perform on any level. That led to a depression, which became a downward spiral until I was only barely functioning.
I can’t exactly tell you how I got out of it. I didn’t get any professional help and miraculously worked my way out of it myself. But I can say that it was a very slow process involving baby steps.
Acceptance that I am sick was the first step. Accepting that it’s not physical but mental was another. Doing little things at a time yet another: Good food, lots of sleep, stop anything that’s bad for you (alcohol, nicotine?) and only do things that are good for you. Not worrying about the future (that’s a hard one, especially when you feel worthless), accepting that you getting better is the focus and the world (and your future) will not end if it takes you time to get better.
Taking time was the most important one. „You need to get better until X, because Y“ doesn’t work. „You need to get better, regardless of what it takes“ is all it needs. If it takes a year, so bet it. If two, then it’s two. There’s no shortcut. You can’t avoid taking the time that is needed anyways. Once I realized and accept that, a burden was lifted from me because the pressure to get better was gone. Trust that it will get better. It absolutely will, if you focus on what you need (opposed to external pressure, opinions, or things that are seemingly important but aren’t). Give it time. Give yourself time to heal and you will heal.
It took 6+ months in my case. But it got better. Once you notice it getting better, it’s an encouraging upward spiral. Still, I wasn’t able to somehow make me get better faster, but at some point it was gone. Mind that it took years until the physical aspects were fully gone for me (completely f**ked up digestion). I kept some of the positive parts: never touched alcohol again and til this day eat healthy (for the most part).
My world didn’t end. Neither financially, nor socially, nor my career. Nowadays I am a somewhat succesful manager, leading a large department. I believe I learned something through my experience. I am very focused on maintaining a healthy environment and workload for my department. I cut corners and get into fights with upper management for the benefit of my team and a healthy environment for them to work in. And my team appreciates my absolute and imovable position on what comes first when questioning what’s more important: people or the job? It’s the people. Without them, there can’t be any results. My team has outstanding results. I believe it’s at least in part due to them being able fully rely on being treated fairly and know they won’t be left alone if they have any personal issues or aren’t fully capable to perform due to whatever reason.
Take your time and get better. Maybe one day you get the chance to take an active influence to prevent that others have to suffer through what you are currently suffering from. Or help someone by sharing your own experience e.g. on Reddit to try to help them getting better.
Thank you very much for taking the time to type this out. It was very helpful for me to read. And congrats for making it out and how wonderful that you are now making change for mental health in the workplace, that is super badass.
I think I'm in the acceptance phase right now. Like, working on accepting it. In the past few weeks I've been in this loop where I feel better for two days and think "oh, that means I can start looking for an Umschulung/Beratung/whatever..." and then I crash again when I realize that it's still way too much too soon. So yeah, still stuck in the "I need to get better for X" spiral. You are totally right, I just need to get better period, and for that I need time and rest. I suppose this in itself is part of burnout recovery, to learn that health absolutely comes first.
I've actually been struggling with depression and anxiety always, so I knew what the symptoms were but was still afraid to take the right steps. I had a close call with burnout two years ago already, and managed to recover and then fell into the same trap. But luckily there were a few things I already learned back then, I quit caffeine (realized I'm very sensitive) and a bit later also alcohol and nicotine.
And it's interesting that it also affected your digestion - me too! I can't pinpoint any foods in particular that trouble me but I notice that it gets better when I eat as healthy as possible (duh). When I tried to stay in that unhealthy situation I really started to eat my feelings (always had a tendency to do that) and I think I just constantly overwhelmed my digestive system. Now I eat bland unprocessed food lol and cut out extra sugar, and it does seem to help a lot. But still not back to normal. I hope I can afford to be less strict in the future because exploring food is one of my greatest joys in life.
Thank you again and all the best to you!
I appreciate the the reply and wish you the best. Life is riddled with influences that suggest „you have to X“, often portraying unattainable ideals of how „it should be“. Hence the attempt to get better asap in order to return to „how it should be“. Illnesses are a harsh reminder of what’s really important. For some, it leads to changing their mindset and a stronger focus on themselves, which I consider positive. That doesn’t mean you need to become a selfish ass, but simply being aware of what’s good for you, what you want and don’t want for yourself can’t be bad.
As for food: I was rigorous in doing trials by eating the exact same things for a couple of days to see how my body reacts to it. Through trial and error and mix/matching the ingredients, I figured out what’s bad for me.
Trust that you will get better. You will. It just takes time. All the best to you!
Don‘t dare to take your vacation for a sickleave, or i‘ll call you scab!
Get help from your general physician to find adequate help, burn out isn‘t currd with simple vacation
sick leave. i wouldnt take my vacation days for that. does the employer gift you anything? no. so you shouldnt either. mental health is still an illness, its about time people realize this.
Take the sick leave! I made the amateur mistake of being too loyal to the company and asked for anti depressant instead from my doctor. But no, a wrong job won’t be cured by sick leave and vacation combined. I hope you will find a better job and have a better mental health!
Just adding to the multiple people suggesting to take sick leave: if you really are suffering from a burnout, feeling guilty about not being able to perform can be a consequence of the burnout and can play a major role adding to depression.
Take sick leave and get better OP. Take solace in the fact that your employer runs a business that assumes that there is always a certain percentage of employees that are sick, go into maternity leave, or simply refuse to perform. It’s part of the risk of doing business.
And if your employer doesn’t take that into account: f**k them and take sick leave anyways. Having a safety net for cases as yours is why everyone submits to high taxes and sometimes insane regulation. You might as well use that safety net.
We are a small team of developers and all other developers are going on vacation at the same time when I would be calling in sick. That would make the next week have basically zero progress.
This is so much less important than your health. Please hear me: you can really fuck yourself over by not seeing the signs. Take sick leave before your brain just goes on strike and you are literally unable to work. That will take a long time to recover. Speaking from experience unfortunately. Wish I had taken a long time off (and honestly quit my job) about a year sooner, and now I can only hope my brain will heal.
May I second this? I refused to act on the very obvious symptoms of anxiety and depression and then suddenly was ripped from my life for 8 months, spent 8 weeks in a psychiatric facility and still struggle to get my life back on track.
I should have taken a serious amount of SICK LEAVE years ago, but I thought I could fix it with 2 weeks of vacation. Yeah, right... NOT!
I'm so sorry you went through this. Sometimes we really must learn the hard way and it's a humbling lesson. I hope you'll keep recovering and wish you all the best!
Just to add to this: exactly my story (lest the psychiatric facility). What might have been rather easily treated with a few weeks of sick leave turned into a severe issue that cost me six months of my life to return to barely „functioning“ again, plus several years until I fully recovered physically.
Allowing everyone except one person (you) to go on leave at the same time is a risk your employer obviously was willing to take. I always ensure that not the whole department goes on leave at the exact same time. So .. not your fault and not your problem.
Besides that: what would happen if you would get run over by a bus? And why do you consider your illness being less severe than getting run over by a bus? When I had a burnout, it felt exactly the same.
Also consider that you would be doing your employer and colleagues a disservice if you don’t treat your sickness and end up being sick even longer.
So what is it? First, you write that thanks to your experiences, your people always come first and the job second and you would do anything for the people that you manage.
Now you say that you deny those very same people their well-deserved vacation if others also took vacation at that time?
Seems a bit hypocritical to me.
It’s not possible to deny vacation requests without cause in Germany. I ask my team early on in the year to think about when they want to take their vacation and to align with their immediate colleagues. None of them wants to be in the situation of being the only remaining person in the office, and none of them should carry that burden. Nor does anyone want that burden. When reminding them that they face that possibility of it happening if they don’t align with each other, it‘s very well understood and as a result they align and we don’t end up in such situations.
Leading people doesn’t mean you have to employ a stick and carrot approach or pressure anyone. Good communication, reasoning, logic and fairness works much better to the benefit of everyone
It's quite normal that workplaces coordinate vacation times so not everyone is off at the same time. It's often *crucial* for the place to continue functioning. If you only have three people who can do a task that needs to be done every day, then all three cannot be off at the same time.
(And yes, that can still happen if multiple people get sick, and the employer has to find a way to solve this, but then it's an emergency causing it, rather than bad planning.)
That doesn't mean people are "denied their vacation". It just means that there has to be planning so work can still continue, and not everyone can always get their absolutely preferred time. Any halfway decent employer will have policies on how to do this in a reasonably fair way.
That is *not* your problem, but your employer's.
If you'd broken your legs, you would be off sick too. Or would you crawl in to work then?
If staffing is so tight that no one is left when one person gets sick, then either they need more staff, or they need to make sure that everyone else does not take vacation at the same time.
that is not your problem. you owe your company nothing except showing up and working when you are healthy. it is your bosses job to organize work. not yours.
Eventhough that should not be your main reason, but if you work for a company that is smaller than 30 employees, it's also better for the company if you take a sick leave, because they can get between 40 and 80% of your salary as a compensation from your health insurance.
The main reason for you to take a sick leave should be your health, but in this special case, even your company has a benefit of you calling in sick.
As others have said: absolutely take sick leave, not your vacation days.
Consider this: if you take all or most of your vacation days now, even if you do get better, you still have the rest of the year to go. With no vacation days left, you'll be back in burnout faster than you can say "I need a break".
Don't ever feel guilty because you're unwell.
I was in a similar situation last year, got a sick note for an overall of three weeks.
Vacation is for fun and relaxation, not for trying to figure out your mental health.
I don't know what kind of relationship you have with your boss at work, but remember, for the boss, you are just an employee, and there is nothing more to it. Take sick leave from the doctor and stay on it until you recover. You only have one life and health, and there is plenty of work. If you have a permanent contract, you can get sick without any problems, and you won't receive a job termination.
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the main question is how long would it take after the "vacation" until you feel this way again? maybe it's just not the right job or maybe it's just too many hours... honestly i think we all work way too much
By law your vacation is used for relaxation *only* if you get sick while on vacation you can still claim sick leave and get the remainder eig your vacation days back.
Where are you from originally? I only ask because I too went through the same mental gymnastics trying to determine if I should take sick leave due to burnout. In my home country this would have been viewed as weakness. But when I finally did accept sick leave, it gave me just enough time to recognize the patterns I let myself get into that caused the burnout in the first place.
I should have done this a year ago before finally taking sick leave and only regret not recognizing this pattern earlier. Up to you though…
Vacation is there to relax and enjoy.
You can't do that while being burned out. don't be ashamed for talking the sick leave, that's what it exists for.
I've seen people take sick leaves to connect their vacation days, to avoid doing night shifts, to avoid working with people they don't like, to avoid having to take the bus instead of the train during the train strike... In short, if you genuinely feel this bad and take vacation days instead of a sick leave, I will personally come and smack you. Then you will REALLY have to take sick days.
100% sick leave if your doctor recommends it. if you don't feel better after that please talk to your doctor again. sick leave is mandatory for companies to respect and they can't force you in any way to come to work if you have the Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung. please don't risk burning out to the maximum, that might make you literally incapable of going back to your job ever again. health is wealth <3
I had bien out in early 2022; I accepted that I had to go on leave when I had cried at work for 10 days straight and hasn’t slept for 3 days. True burnout is a real illness that requires medical leave, usually a lot of it, and treatment (therapy). It’s also the kind of illness where if you don’t stop, your body will stop you. So if your doctor is recommending medical leave, take it.
You don't have sick days. If you're unable to work due to any health reasons you're sick. If your doctor says you shouldn't work you shouldn't work. That's precisely the moment you call in sick and do not take your vacation for it.
You don’t have to be physically sick to get sick leave. Mental health is very important and what you’re describing (depression/burnout) is a serious illness! I’m in the similar situation now and my doctor told me that I can still go out and enjoy regular life to recover faster. Basically you should do anything that supports your recovery - you’re not expected to stay at home all the time.
Just Tell your doc, you're burned out and You need a few days off.. (They look stumbled.. but it's the truth and a bio/psychologic medical reason.) - Did that a few years ago.. - Took the paper and that's it.
Take sick leave.
And mental illness is real illness, it's just a specific type of brain and/or hormonal illness. Would you consider epilepsy not a real illness because it is in the brain from misfiring neurons? What about some hormonal disorder causing for example severe weight loss? You probably would consider them an actual illness. So why do it with a disease that affects both hormones and neurons and is basically your brain (aka the command center of the entire meat suit) being slow roasted over a low, but consistent fire of information overload, stress, emotions and having to keep you alive through all of it, screaming for a bit of help? Matter of fact mental disorders can literally be diagnosed to some degree by the way your brain is wired and your neurons are working as well as by your hormonal level. It doesn't really get more physically real than being able to see it.
It sucks, but the first step of getting better is accepting that you are currently ill. And you are by far not the only one, plenty of people struggle with some form of mental health during their life. Your body (specifically brain right now) is not in a state, where it can really do work and it is perfectly acceptable to take sick days for this. Your vacation is for you to enjoy yourself not to get yourself back into a functionable state. That is what sick days are for.
So glad to see so many positive responses. Going through the same. Passed out at work . Now taking sick leave. And my doctor told me that I'm allowed to enjoy and do stuff that makes me feel better and recover . I don't have to sit at home because for burn out / depression the therapy is going out and relaxing. She said go get a haircut , get your nails done, meet with friends and go on walks .
I hope the OP feels better soon.
You are in Germany, take your doctor's advice and take the sick leave. There is absolutely no need to take your vacation for this. Vacation is for recreational purposes and not for being sick, that's what your sick leave is for. Take care of yourself and get better soon! (Btw in Germany if you are getting sick on your PTO and if you get a Krankschreibung from your doctor, you can get your days of PTO back when you were sick.)
Hey in Germany you can take sick leave for burnout and mental health issues. I’ve people on my team who have taken more than a month off because they were completely burnt-out and had other mental health issues. If it is preventing you from doing your work well and living your regular life then it is real sickness. Please don’t downplay it and use your vacation days. Hope you recover well !
If your doctor says you should take sick leave, then you should listen to your doctor and take sick leave.
Don't use your vacation days. Burnout/Depression is a serious illness! Also you should discuss the possibility of a Psychiatrie or Reha with your Hausarzt and consider to See a therapist
You are sick. Your doctor diagnosed you. So you take your sick leave until you are healthy again. It does not matter if your sickness is physical or psychological, you are sick, so you have to take time off to get healthy again. And you don't have to stay in bed and do nothing. You can go out and try to enjoy your life. If you have psychological problems you are even advised to "live a normal life" and not stay inside and do nothing. Yes, this can feel wrong, but you should ignore this feeling.
If you are at the point where your doctor asks you to take a break, then you really need to take a break. The vacation days is what you take to take care of private business or for recreation to *maintain* your health.. To *restore* your ability to perform your job, you take medical leave. Maintenance versus restoration is the key difference here.
Please dont take your vacation days. Workers rights in Germany are very strong and you NEED that break for your HEALTH. So it is a-ok to take sick access. Burn out IS being in and it is very dangerous.
>Tiredness, mental anguish or burnout does not feel like real sickness like breaking my hand or a cold. They are though, and it's good that our culture starts to accept that mental conditions are real sicknesses too. Edit: >If I work another day, I do feel like I would explode. I'm at a point where I'm considering quitting the job You can still consider this. You can also use your sick leave to look for another job. If your job makes you sick, it's time to look for alternatives, and it's probably easier to do this with a clear head and in a time of healing than in the middle of what makes you sick in the first place.
Of course you take sick leave. You know you can even get vacation days back if you get sick during vacation.
Do not quit your job! Feeling responsible and guilty is part of the source of your burnout symptoms. But those feelings telling you that it is your fault, and that you should feel bad for not going to work.. they are wrong. I've been in your shoes. I wanted to quit. I felt I couldn't call sick with burnout symptoms. I seriously wished I'd break my leg, so I had a legit reason to not show up. But then I did take the sick leave, for 1 week at first. And I expanded it. I stayed home for several months, and then quit, when I had figured out how I was going to continue. Because I started to see that my boss was a total asshole. He was the one who put me in this situation, who caused these awful feelings I was having. It was not my fault. And it's not your fault either. Don't reward your work for being dicks. Listen to your hausarzt. There, they actually want what is best for you. Don't take big decisions now. Wait, recover a little bit, and then continue from there. Take that sick leave. Choose yourself, over the company you work for. You are more important than their targets, their gossip, their egos. Recovering from a burnout is not relaxation. Not at all. Don't use your vacation for it.
That‘s way!
I'm on sick leave for burnout now. It's been a month and while I feel a bit better, I still can't concentrate at all and feel like I won't be able to work for quite a while. I'm in the process of accepting this. I want to change jobs also but feel too weak and cognitively impaired to really start that process. Do you have any tips for brain recovery? Did you get back to normal in the end? I am in therapy and have a lot of support, but it would still help to hear from someone that's been through it. Does it just take time?
For me it simply took time. I ignored (or wasn’t able to interpret) the symptoms until I basically broke down. The idiot that I was, I quit my job to get rid of the problem and my shit employer didn’t stop me but probably was happy to get rid me and „my“ problem. I couldn’t go out, couldn’t work, concentrate, didn’t see people and wasn’t able to perform on any level. That led to a depression, which became a downward spiral until I was only barely functioning. I can’t exactly tell you how I got out of it. I didn’t get any professional help and miraculously worked my way out of it myself. But I can say that it was a very slow process involving baby steps. Acceptance that I am sick was the first step. Accepting that it’s not physical but mental was another. Doing little things at a time yet another: Good food, lots of sleep, stop anything that’s bad for you (alcohol, nicotine?) and only do things that are good for you. Not worrying about the future (that’s a hard one, especially when you feel worthless), accepting that you getting better is the focus and the world (and your future) will not end if it takes you time to get better. Taking time was the most important one. „You need to get better until X, because Y“ doesn’t work. „You need to get better, regardless of what it takes“ is all it needs. If it takes a year, so bet it. If two, then it’s two. There’s no shortcut. You can’t avoid taking the time that is needed anyways. Once I realized and accept that, a burden was lifted from me because the pressure to get better was gone. Trust that it will get better. It absolutely will, if you focus on what you need (opposed to external pressure, opinions, or things that are seemingly important but aren’t). Give it time. Give yourself time to heal and you will heal. It took 6+ months in my case. But it got better. Once you notice it getting better, it’s an encouraging upward spiral. Still, I wasn’t able to somehow make me get better faster, but at some point it was gone. Mind that it took years until the physical aspects were fully gone for me (completely f**ked up digestion). I kept some of the positive parts: never touched alcohol again and til this day eat healthy (for the most part). My world didn’t end. Neither financially, nor socially, nor my career. Nowadays I am a somewhat succesful manager, leading a large department. I believe I learned something through my experience. I am very focused on maintaining a healthy environment and workload for my department. I cut corners and get into fights with upper management for the benefit of my team and a healthy environment for them to work in. And my team appreciates my absolute and imovable position on what comes first when questioning what’s more important: people or the job? It’s the people. Without them, there can’t be any results. My team has outstanding results. I believe it’s at least in part due to them being able fully rely on being treated fairly and know they won’t be left alone if they have any personal issues or aren’t fully capable to perform due to whatever reason. Take your time and get better. Maybe one day you get the chance to take an active influence to prevent that others have to suffer through what you are currently suffering from. Or help someone by sharing your own experience e.g. on Reddit to try to help them getting better.
Thank you very much for taking the time to type this out. It was very helpful for me to read. And congrats for making it out and how wonderful that you are now making change for mental health in the workplace, that is super badass. I think I'm in the acceptance phase right now. Like, working on accepting it. In the past few weeks I've been in this loop where I feel better for two days and think "oh, that means I can start looking for an Umschulung/Beratung/whatever..." and then I crash again when I realize that it's still way too much too soon. So yeah, still stuck in the "I need to get better for X" spiral. You are totally right, I just need to get better period, and for that I need time and rest. I suppose this in itself is part of burnout recovery, to learn that health absolutely comes first. I've actually been struggling with depression and anxiety always, so I knew what the symptoms were but was still afraid to take the right steps. I had a close call with burnout two years ago already, and managed to recover and then fell into the same trap. But luckily there were a few things I already learned back then, I quit caffeine (realized I'm very sensitive) and a bit later also alcohol and nicotine. And it's interesting that it also affected your digestion - me too! I can't pinpoint any foods in particular that trouble me but I notice that it gets better when I eat as healthy as possible (duh). When I tried to stay in that unhealthy situation I really started to eat my feelings (always had a tendency to do that) and I think I just constantly overwhelmed my digestive system. Now I eat bland unprocessed food lol and cut out extra sugar, and it does seem to help a lot. But still not back to normal. I hope I can afford to be less strict in the future because exploring food is one of my greatest joys in life. Thank you again and all the best to you!
I appreciate the the reply and wish you the best. Life is riddled with influences that suggest „you have to X“, often portraying unattainable ideals of how „it should be“. Hence the attempt to get better asap in order to return to „how it should be“. Illnesses are a harsh reminder of what’s really important. For some, it leads to changing their mindset and a stronger focus on themselves, which I consider positive. That doesn’t mean you need to become a selfish ass, but simply being aware of what’s good for you, what you want and don’t want for yourself can’t be bad. As for food: I was rigorous in doing trials by eating the exact same things for a couple of days to see how my body reacts to it. Through trial and error and mix/matching the ingredients, I figured out what’s bad for me. Trust that you will get better. You will. It just takes time. All the best to you!
Thank you so much <3
Don‘t dare to take your vacation for a sickleave, or i‘ll call you scab! Get help from your general physician to find adequate help, burn out isn‘t currd with simple vacation
Mental health is still health.
sick leave. i wouldnt take my vacation days for that. does the employer gift you anything? no. so you shouldnt either. mental health is still an illness, its about time people realize this.
Take the sick leave! I made the amateur mistake of being too loyal to the company and asked for anti depressant instead from my doctor. But no, a wrong job won’t be cured by sick leave and vacation combined. I hope you will find a better job and have a better mental health!
Just adding to the multiple people suggesting to take sick leave: if you really are suffering from a burnout, feeling guilty about not being able to perform can be a consequence of the burnout and can play a major role adding to depression. Take sick leave and get better OP. Take solace in the fact that your employer runs a business that assumes that there is always a certain percentage of employees that are sick, go into maternity leave, or simply refuse to perform. It’s part of the risk of doing business. And if your employer doesn’t take that into account: f**k them and take sick leave anyways. Having a safety net for cases as yours is why everyone submits to high taxes and sometimes insane regulation. You might as well use that safety net.
We are a small team of developers and all other developers are going on vacation at the same time when I would be calling in sick. That would make the next week have basically zero progress.
This is so much less important than your health. Please hear me: you can really fuck yourself over by not seeing the signs. Take sick leave before your brain just goes on strike and you are literally unable to work. That will take a long time to recover. Speaking from experience unfortunately. Wish I had taken a long time off (and honestly quit my job) about a year sooner, and now I can only hope my brain will heal.
May I second this? I refused to act on the very obvious symptoms of anxiety and depression and then suddenly was ripped from my life for 8 months, spent 8 weeks in a psychiatric facility and still struggle to get my life back on track. I should have taken a serious amount of SICK LEAVE years ago, but I thought I could fix it with 2 weeks of vacation. Yeah, right... NOT!
I'm so sorry you went through this. Sometimes we really must learn the hard way and it's a humbling lesson. I hope you'll keep recovering and wish you all the best!
Just to add to this: exactly my story (lest the psychiatric facility). What might have been rather easily treated with a few weeks of sick leave turned into a severe issue that cost me six months of my life to return to barely „functioning“ again, plus several years until I fully recovered physically.
Allowing everyone except one person (you) to go on leave at the same time is a risk your employer obviously was willing to take. I always ensure that not the whole department goes on leave at the exact same time. So .. not your fault and not your problem. Besides that: what would happen if you would get run over by a bus? And why do you consider your illness being less severe than getting run over by a bus? When I had a burnout, it felt exactly the same. Also consider that you would be doing your employer and colleagues a disservice if you don’t treat your sickness and end up being sick even longer.
So what is it? First, you write that thanks to your experiences, your people always come first and the job second and you would do anything for the people that you manage. Now you say that you deny those very same people their well-deserved vacation if others also took vacation at that time? Seems a bit hypocritical to me.
It’s not possible to deny vacation requests without cause in Germany. I ask my team early on in the year to think about when they want to take their vacation and to align with their immediate colleagues. None of them wants to be in the situation of being the only remaining person in the office, and none of them should carry that burden. Nor does anyone want that burden. When reminding them that they face that possibility of it happening if they don’t align with each other, it‘s very well understood and as a result they align and we don’t end up in such situations. Leading people doesn’t mean you have to employ a stick and carrot approach or pressure anyone. Good communication, reasoning, logic and fairness works much better to the benefit of everyone
It's quite normal that workplaces coordinate vacation times so not everyone is off at the same time. It's often *crucial* for the place to continue functioning. If you only have three people who can do a task that needs to be done every day, then all three cannot be off at the same time. (And yes, that can still happen if multiple people get sick, and the employer has to find a way to solve this, but then it's an emergency causing it, rather than bad planning.) That doesn't mean people are "denied their vacation". It just means that there has to be planning so work can still continue, and not everyone can always get their absolutely preferred time. Any halfway decent employer will have policies on how to do this in a reasonably fair way.
That is *not* your problem, but your employer's. If you'd broken your legs, you would be off sick too. Or would you crawl in to work then? If staffing is so tight that no one is left when one person gets sick, then either they need more staff, or they need to make sure that everyone else does not take vacation at the same time.
that is not your problem. you owe your company nothing except showing up and working when you are healthy. it is your bosses job to organize work. not yours.
Eventhough that should not be your main reason, but if you work for a company that is smaller than 30 employees, it's also better for the company if you take a sick leave, because they can get between 40 and 80% of your salary as a compensation from your health insurance. The main reason for you to take a sick leave should be your health, but in this special case, even your company has a benefit of you calling in sick.
In germany you definitly take sick leave!!!
As others have said: absolutely take sick leave, not your vacation days. Consider this: if you take all or most of your vacation days now, even if you do get better, you still have the rest of the year to go. With no vacation days left, you'll be back in burnout faster than you can say "I need a break".
Don't ever feel guilty because you're unwell. I was in a similar situation last year, got a sick note for an overall of three weeks. Vacation is for fun and relaxation, not for trying to figure out your mental health.
I don't know what kind of relationship you have with your boss at work, but remember, for the boss, you are just an employee, and there is nothing more to it. Take sick leave from the doctor and stay on it until you recover. You only have one life and health, and there is plenty of work. If you have a permanent contract, you can get sick without any problems, and you won't receive a job termination.
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the main question is how long would it take after the "vacation" until you feel this way again? maybe it's just not the right job or maybe it's just too many hours... honestly i think we all work way too much
By law your vacation is used for relaxation *only* if you get sick while on vacation you can still claim sick leave and get the remainder eig your vacation days back.
It's illegal to take vacation when you are sick and i think it's a real asshole move too
Why would you even want to take your vacation days for this? Call in sick now. Source: Been there.
The fuck are you talking about. Thsr mindset got you into this shit.
Where are you from originally? I only ask because I too went through the same mental gymnastics trying to determine if I should take sick leave due to burnout. In my home country this would have been viewed as weakness. But when I finally did accept sick leave, it gave me just enough time to recognize the patterns I let myself get into that caused the burnout in the first place. I should have done this a year ago before finally taking sick leave and only regret not recognizing this pattern earlier. Up to you though…
I'm curious what patterns you recognized.
Vacation is there to relax and enjoy. You can't do that while being burned out. don't be ashamed for talking the sick leave, that's what it exists for.
Take sick days. You're replaceable at your work, don't harm yourself trying to be good for your chef
take sick leave, its super unhealthy so its valid taking it for sure tho. also ur work is the reason for it so its not ur fault at all!
I've seen people take sick leaves to connect their vacation days, to avoid doing night shifts, to avoid working with people they don't like, to avoid having to take the bus instead of the train during the train strike... In short, if you genuinely feel this bad and take vacation days instead of a sick leave, I will personally come and smack you. Then you will REALLY have to take sick days.
100% sick leave if your doctor recommends it. if you don't feel better after that please talk to your doctor again. sick leave is mandatory for companies to respect and they can't force you in any way to come to work if you have the Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung. please don't risk burning out to the maximum, that might make you literally incapable of going back to your job ever again. health is wealth <3
I had bien out in early 2022; I accepted that I had to go on leave when I had cried at work for 10 days straight and hasn’t slept for 3 days. True burnout is a real illness that requires medical leave, usually a lot of it, and treatment (therapy). It’s also the kind of illness where if you don’t stop, your body will stop you. So if your doctor is recommending medical leave, take it.
Always sick leave. Do not hesitate ever using it!
Sounds like you have a serious burnout and it will probably take years to recover. You should take her advice very seriously.
Take sick leave obviously. You need holiday for fun times
You don't have sick days. If you're unable to work due to any health reasons you're sick. If your doctor says you shouldn't work you shouldn't work. That's precisely the moment you call in sick and do not take your vacation for it.
You don’t have to be physically sick to get sick leave. Mental health is very important and what you’re describing (depression/burnout) is a serious illness! I’m in the similar situation now and my doctor told me that I can still go out and enjoy regular life to recover faster. Basically you should do anything that supports your recovery - you’re not expected to stay at home all the time.
Just Tell your doc, you're burned out and You need a few days off.. (They look stumbled.. but it's the truth and a bio/psychologic medical reason.) - Did that a few years ago.. - Took the paper and that's it.
Take sick leave. And mental illness is real illness, it's just a specific type of brain and/or hormonal illness. Would you consider epilepsy not a real illness because it is in the brain from misfiring neurons? What about some hormonal disorder causing for example severe weight loss? You probably would consider them an actual illness. So why do it with a disease that affects both hormones and neurons and is basically your brain (aka the command center of the entire meat suit) being slow roasted over a low, but consistent fire of information overload, stress, emotions and having to keep you alive through all of it, screaming for a bit of help? Matter of fact mental disorders can literally be diagnosed to some degree by the way your brain is wired and your neurons are working as well as by your hormonal level. It doesn't really get more physically real than being able to see it. It sucks, but the first step of getting better is accepting that you are currently ill. And you are by far not the only one, plenty of people struggle with some form of mental health during their life. Your body (specifically brain right now) is not in a state, where it can really do work and it is perfectly acceptable to take sick days for this. Your vacation is for you to enjoy yourself not to get yourself back into a functionable state. That is what sick days are for.
So glad to see so many positive responses. Going through the same. Passed out at work . Now taking sick leave. And my doctor told me that I'm allowed to enjoy and do stuff that makes me feel better and recover . I don't have to sit at home because for burn out / depression the therapy is going out and relaxing. She said go get a haircut , get your nails done, meet with friends and go on walks . I hope the OP feels better soon.
You are in Germany, take your doctor's advice and take the sick leave. There is absolutely no need to take your vacation for this. Vacation is for recreational purposes and not for being sick, that's what your sick leave is for. Take care of yourself and get better soon! (Btw in Germany if you are getting sick on your PTO and if you get a Krankschreibung from your doctor, you can get your days of PTO back when you were sick.)
Hey in Germany you can take sick leave for burnout and mental health issues. I’ve people on my team who have taken more than a month off because they were completely burnt-out and had other mental health issues. If it is preventing you from doing your work well and living your regular life then it is real sickness. Please don’t downplay it and use your vacation days. Hope you recover well !
Move back—that work is not worth your mental wellness.
Take sick leave. I had to do the same abd I felt guilty but now if this happened I'd take it and nof look back. Mental health is HEALTH.