Should Engineers be Allowed to Take Vacations?
Craig the Rocket Scientist
January 5, 2012 The hardest part of going on vacation is going back into work when it’s over. When I got back into work I found 4 voicemails, 250 emails, and a stack of papers on my chair I seriously wondered: Was the only one who took Christmas and New Years off?
I then had to reapply for access to several secure systems since I had been gone so long. That got me thinking about engineers and vacations.
Should Engineers be allowed to take vacations?
Now this might sound strange, being that I’m an engineer, but I think it has some valid reasoning behind it. . .
If your hairstylist goes away for a month or two and forgets a technique, the worst possible scenario is you get a bad haircut.
If an engineer is gone for a month and forgets a technique, someone might die (seriously!).
“But Craig,” you say, “Nobody takes a month long vacation!” Well maybe not in this country, but overseas it’s quite common for someone to take several months off. On top of that, even in this country, it’s quite common in the engineering world to bank all your vacation time and take the most time off during Thanksgiving to New Year’s. So yes, we can be away from our desks for up to a month (We’re nerds, not dead).
When I have large, extremely detailed projects on my plate (which is….always), is it responsible for me to disappear for an extended period of time? Sure, I could have someone fill in for me, or maybe have a peer review my work when I get back, but this puts extra burden upon those around me; and I’m nothing if not self-sufficient.
I can’t work every day of the year with no breaks, I’ll go mental and burden my coworkers again by leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces. So should there be some sort of regulation that states people in positions that deal with the safety of the public can only get away for so long? Could there be a test proving my proficiency when I get back?
I’m not a fan of the government regulating my free time, but the more I mull the idea over–the better it starts to sound.
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Comments (1)
Engineers forget stuff all the time. And often times they haven’t done a certain task before. But that’s the whole point of being an engineer–to figure stuff out that you don’t know. All an engineering degree does is certify that you’re at least halfway decent at figuring stuff out and looking things up. Nobody remembers everything they learned in college. Besides, consumer products undergo many forms of validation before they are released to the public. I’ve never heard of engineers taking vacations being a problem.
Somehow I don’t think you’re a rocket scientist…
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