Reading time: five minutes

Earlier this month I did something for the first time in three and a half years: I took a holiday and didn’t do any work at all! No main work, no side work, no writing, no nothing! Just a few days away, doing the things I wanted to do.

And it felt brilliant!

While this was a big deal for me, I’ve learned I’m not alone. And as trainees and aspiring lawyers working hard to achieve our goals, we need to think about how we can build a sustainable long-term career in law, if this is indeed the route we want to go down.

Why you should take a holiday

The most important reason for taking a holiday is for your own physical, and mental, health and wellbeing. Stress, anxiety and burnout are hugely pervasive in the profession, but tired and burnt-out lawyers are no good to anyone. We’re more prone to making mistakes, missing deadlines, not processing instructions properly, making ourselves ill, and much more.

Holidays are a chance to unwind, switch off, and let off some steam doing whatever it is that helps you do that.

Holidays give us a chance to be present and spend quality time with friends, family or even just ourselves without any distractions from work.

A holiday can serve as motivation too, even if it’s booked months in advance. Having something to look forward to can help us get through difficult or stressful times.

We’re all probably guilty of not getting enough exercise while we’re working. Well, it turns out that many of us actually do more exercise and physical activities while we’re on holiday, without even realising it! This could be walking, hiking, swimming, or something more active like kayaking, rafting or bike riding.

Holidays also give us the chance to appreciate our day-to-day more when we’re back. We only have one life, and we have the right to live that life in a way that makes us happy and fulfilled. I personally want to spend my life making good friendships, great memories, and doing as many enjoyable things as I can, while also being able to help as many people as possible either through work or in my personal life. I believe that’s what will make me happy and what will make my life worthwhile and fulfilling.

Is it an obligation?

The Working Time Regulations 1998 states that all employees are entitled to four weeks of paid holiday. It also says that employers can require an employee to take their entire entitlement within that holiday year. Some employers may be flexible and allow an employee to carry some holiday over into the next holiday year at their discretion.

Your employment contract will usually reflect this, or it’ll refer you to the staff handbook or annual leave policy.

So, since you’re entitled to paid holiday from your employer, there’s really no reason to not use it. It’s reasonable to give your colleagues some notice that you want to take a break, so that they have adequate time to prepare cover for your work and so that any of your urgent work can be picked up.

But employees may choose not to take the holidays they’re entitled to. Why?

In some workplaces, a culture may arise where taking holidays is something to be looked down upon. Is this a workplace culture issue, or a more general profession culture issue? Difficult to say, but regardless, it’s a strange circumstance because surely employers and the wider profession want as many of us as healthy as we can be? 

I’ll be honest, I’ve given myself so many excuses over the years to not take a break. Maybe some of these resonate with you too, and if they do, have a read as to why they’re based on nonsense!

• “I’ll fall behind on my training” – I thought I needed to be at work constantly so I could get the most out of my training and stay ‘in flow’. But work will always be there and there’ll be plenty of opportunities for training. Working constantly won’t make you resilient; it’ll make you exhausted! A week away won’t hinder you!
• “I have too much work” – Feeling like we have too much work can put us off taking a break for fear of it piling up, but we need a chance to reset and refresh ourselves otherwise we make ourselves ill.
• “I can’t afford it” – I get it, money is being stretched right now. But you’d be surprised what you can find on your doorstep, or even just a short bus or train ride away. I’m close to many beautiful places like the Cotswolds, Lickey Hills, Gloucestershire and some natural forests where I can just unplug and unwind. For the cost of a return train ticket, these are right on my doorstep. A holiday doesn’t have to mean time abroad, it just has to mean a break from your work.
• “I don’t deserve it/I haven’t earned it” – It’s surprising how many fellow paralegals feel this way too! I’ve been working so hard for so long, and in that time I’ve had to put up with the best and the worst of the profession and its people. We all deserve to be happy and to look after ourselves.
• “No one else can do my work like I can” – True, we all approach our work differently. But if you step back and look closer, the work we do is on behalf of the company, and the company must approve our work through a trained supervisor. It’s the same for our colleagues too. So, while we all have our own ways of working, it’s ultimately down to the company/supervisor to determine what’s seen to be competent work.

To reiterate the message of this article - take a break, for goodness sake! You’ve earned it, you deserve it, and you owe it to yourself to prioritise your own health and wellbeing and to make the best memories possible in this one life that you get!

For more on taking care of your wellbeing, you can read this LCN Says on establishing healthy habits early on.