The Hidden Costs of Working During Vacation (and How to Avoid Burnout)

You’ve packed your bags, set your out-of-office, and promised yourself to unwind — only to open Slack after two days and “just answer a couple of emails.” You’re not alone. But in an era that celebrates productivity and presence above all else, we must ask: What is the cost of working while supposedly resting?

While occasional check-ins may feel harmless, the consequences are more profound than many realize. Not because of the time spent, but because of the mindset it perpetuates: that proper rest is a luxury rather than a necessity.

Drawing on organizational psychology, occupational health research, and real-life insights from people and teams I’ve worked with globally, here are five hidden damages of working during vacation and what we can do instead.

1. The Erosion of Cognitive Recovery

The brain, like any muscle, needs rest to repair and rewire. When we work during vacations, even briefly, we disrupt the deep recovery process known as psychological detachment. Without it, we return with depleted resources, less resilience, and reduced executive function (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015). It's not just fatigue - it’s long-term cognitive taxation.

What to do instead: Plan your vacations as recovery sprints, not as “flexible workdays with a nicer view.” Block off communication channels, delegate clearly, and trust your team to hold the fort.

2. The Silent Sabotage of Team Culture

When leaders or employees stay “digitally tethered,” they unintentionally signal that disconnection is risky or frowned upon. This fosters a culture of presenteeism and guilt-based engagement, ultimately damaging trust, reinforcing anxiety, and encouraging unhealthy comparisons between team members.

ֿWhat to do instead: Normalize unplugging by leading by example. Celebrate disconnection, not availability. Make “being offline” a visible and respected norm.

3. Creativity Decay

Innovation requires space. When our attention is constantly interrupted — even by low-stakes emails we don’t enter the mental state necessary for incubation, the silent phase of creativity where ideas evolve unconsciously (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996). Working during vacation keeps our brains in execution mode, not exploration mode.

What to do instead: Engage in curiosity-driven, non-work activities during vacation: hiking, journaling, music, and play. They activate divergent thinking and restore creative bandwidth.

4. Emotional Burnout in Disguise

Burnout doesn't just come from working too much, but from never fully stepping away. According to the Conservation of Resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989), we need sustained periods of recovery to replenish emotional energy. A vacation with half-presence is often more exhausting than no vacation at all.

What to do instead: Shift your mindset: vacation is not a perk; it’s part of your performance system. Schedule it with the same seriousness you would a primary deliverable.

5. Distorted Sense of Self-Worth

Many professionals conflate being needed with being valuable. When we respond to work while on vacation, we feed a self-concept built on urgency, not sustainability. This pattern is particularly prevalent among high-performers and caregivers and can erode long-term mental health.

What to do instead: Redefine your worth around contribution, not availability. Ask yourself: If I disappear for a week, does that mean I’m replaceable — or that I’ve built a resilient system?

Practical Shifts for a Healthier Culture

For individuals:

• Set clear communication boundaries before time off.

• Use “digital sabbaticals” even outside official vacations.

• Create rituals that signal rest, not just an absence of work.

  
  

For leaders:

• Audit your culture: How do you treat time off?

• Offer training on sustainable performance and burnout prevention.

• Incentivize deep rest: reward people for not working on vacation.

  
  

Final Thought

Burnout isn’t always loud. Sometimes, it arrives quietly, disguised as loyalty, wrapped in productivity, fueled by guilt. A real vacation is more than a location change. It’s a cognitive reset. A permission to pause. A radical act of sustainability.

References

• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. Harper Perennial.

• Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513–524.

• Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2015). Recovery from job stress: The stressor-detachment model as an integrative framework. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(S1), S72–S103.

• Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Burnout: A multidimensional perspective. In Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and Behavior.

• Westman, M., & Eden, D. (1997). Effects of a respite from work on burnout: Vacation relief and fade-out. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82(4), 516–527.