By Angela Nuñez

Many private and public sector employees are skipping vacation time in favor of working instead. This trend, however, is both bad for those who opt to skip vacation and bad for the organizations these overachievers work for. Everyone needs a mental break every now and then, and if you don’t take that break, you’re giving yourself and your job the short end of the stick. Working too hard without the balance of playing (or resting) makes you prone to a burnout—or at the very least, not working at your most efficient, productive level possible. You can’t be your most engaged self at work if you’re always depriving yourself of your vacation time. Even if you don’t go away somewhere for vacation, simply resting at home or spending time in a nearby park can do wonders for your mental state. You’ll come back to your job refreshed and recharged.

You may worry that your team won’t be able to handle the workload in your absence, but whatever doesn’t get done while you’re away will still be there when you get back, and most tasks really can wait—the world’s not going to end if some things get pushed back a few days. All work and no play can lead to some major stress. Not only is stress a major block to getting engaged in your work, it also makes you more irritable (watch out, coworkers!) and too much of it is bad for your health, leading to major problems if not dealt with on a regular basis. So take your vacation, for your sake and the sake of your organization.

When’s the last time you used your vacation time? Did you notice any differences when you returned to work?