Is the Always-On Tax Affecting Your Leadership?
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER | July 2026
In over two decades of working with senior leaders, I’ve noticed something telling about how we talk about vacation.
There are two types of leaders who say, “I never take time off.”
The first type genuinely doesn’t. They wear it as a badge of honor, a proof of commitment, of indispensability, of how much the organization needs them. They are proud of it.
The second type says it, but quietly disappears on long weekends, “travels for work” (wink), or surfaces as unreachable for stretches they never formally acknowledge as time away.
Both are sending the wrong signal. And both are paying a tax they aren’t tracking.
The tax is paid in the currency leaders can least afford to lose: clarity, perspective, and the capacity to make good decisions. Unlike financial debt, most leaders don’t notice this cost until it becomes significant.
BUSY IS NOT A STRATEGY
When busyness is the badge, speed is mistaken for leadership. And stopping gets confused with weakness.
The past few years have only made this worse. The pace of work has accelerated in ways that would have been hard to imagine a decade ago. This leaves many leaders making the same impossible bargain: I’ll take real time off when things slow down. When this quarter settles. When we get through the restructuring.
That moment is not coming.
Business cycles are no longer predictable, and the slowdown is not the reward waiting at the end of the sprint.
And while we wait for it, the tax accumulates.
Leaders don't lose their edge by taking time away. They lose it by never stepping away.
THE NUMBERS ARE UNCOMFORTABLE
Nearly one in four U.S. workers took no vacation days at all last year. Almost half expect to leave time unused at year’s end. Sixty-eight million Americans are forfeiting PTO they earned, at an average cash value of $3,000 per person.
But the real cost isn’t financial.
Chronic stress—the kind that builds when we never fully step away—physically shrinks the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning. It impairs the prefrontal cortex: our seat of judgment, decision-making, and emotional regulation. The cognitive fog, the shorter fuse, and the sense that everything feels urgent—these are not character flaws. They are what cortisol does to a body when it never gets a rest.
Ernst & Young found that for every additional 10 hours of vacation employees took, their performance ratings improved by 8%. One study documented a 50% spike in creativity following just four days of genuine disconnection.
This is not a case for wellness. It is a case for leadership.
PAUSING IS STRATEGIC
Leaders who never stop lose perspective. They stop asking if they are heading down the right path and simply accelerate in the direction they are already going. And they bring their entire team with them. That’s not dedication—it’s recklessness.
Real breaks are how leaders recalibrate. It is how leaders reconnect with what matters, restore the meaning that has been slowly depleting (we talked about this in May), and recharge the identity under pressure (we talked about that in June). Vacation is not a luxury at the end of a long quarter. It is how you sustain your capacity to lead through the next one.
ON THE MYTH OF INDISPENSABILITY
Beyond the arguments for wellness, there is something a little absurd about the belief that we are so essential that we cannot be away for a week or two.
Yes, senior leaders sometimes need to be reachable. True emergencies exist, but how often are we dealing with real emergencies? Let’s keep it real—most of us are not saving lives for a living.
In my experience, wisdom includes knowing when to schedule time away thoughtfully. Avoiding time off is not wisdom.
If you genuinely cannot step away—if your organization would falter without your daily presence—that is not something to be proud of. It is a reflection of your team’s capacity and level of empowerment.
A resilient organization isn't built around your constant presence—it's built around your ability to step away.
WHAT REAL VACATION LOOK LIKE
For the past fifteen years, I’ve practiced what I am prescribing. Before I leave, I prepare: I let people know I am stepping away, I define clearly what constitutes a genuine emergency that warrants a text, and I give my people the authority to handle what they can.
Then I go. Fully.
It is not complicated. It is the decision to lead by example, to demonstrate that pausing is not weakness, but wisdom.
QUESTIONS WORTH SITTING WITH:
When was the last time you took a real vacation?
Did you give yourself genuine permission to disconnect?
How did you prepare your team?
Going forward, what would you do differently?
These are not rhetorical. Your answers will shape what you do next.
