Hi friends,
Sam and I have been working in sports for almost a decade. During that time, I’ve held a variety of roles in sports media and professional sports. In the spring of 2024, I did something I’d never done before…took (almost) a full week off and completely unplugged.
We joke about it a lot, but there are some organizations (especially in sports) where requesting time off is seriously frowned upon. Raise your hand if you’ve ever worked somewhere where taking PTO was a stress-inducing activity, filled with apologies and promises to do extra work, bring your laptop, check your email, or give up your firstborn. And if you did actually make it through the process of taking your hard-earned off days, there was probably some lingering anxiety related to what you were missing or a feeling that you needed to check in to stay on top of your work.
It was like that at ESPN, where the Stats and Info Group (SIG) had an annual “Vacation Draft”, a complex, convoluted process during which you were supposed to be able to request and receive vacation time, including either Thanksgiving or Christmas day. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that the draft didn’t guarantee you any off days (and that “you’ll only work one major holiday” rule was total BS). As a result, very few people used vacation time. The longest I took off at ESPN was a few days to go on my family’s beach vacation, during which I was constantly checking email and feeling pressured to respond to incoming messages.
Your best bet if you wanted a specific day off was to find someone who wasn’t working on that specific date and swap with them. Since you were usually angling to get a rare weekend off day (a precious commodity in SIG), few people, if any, were willing to trade. If they did, it was with the expectation that some day down the line the favor would be repaid. The other option was to try to strike a deal with a manager, though that usually involved a heavy guilt trip as well. When I found out I had the chance to go see the Eagles in Super Bowl LII, I was told it was going to be almost impossible to find someone to cover my shift and told I should be grateful when they finally agreed I could have the day off.
While the Eagles had a more straightforward time off request system, it was again uncommon for those of us in early or mid-level positions to take time. When I once again took a week off to go to the beach with my family, I found myself being asked to join five different calls. There were multiple mornings when I woke up by 7 am to several missed calls and texts from my boss, wanting to check in or asking me to call her. There was a significant lack of boundaries and I felt pressure to constantly stay up to date on my email and messages.
Needless to say, I’ve rarely been able to completely unplug - and by extension, fully relax - while on vacation. That is until earlier this year. Despite getting married several years ago, my husband and I had yet to go on our honeymoon – another byproduct of working in professional sports and having opposite offseasons. But for Christmas, he surprised me by planning a trip to Hawaii, including tickets to an authentic luau, a sea life park where we’d swim with dolphins, snorkeling, and more.
Before we left, he asked me how much work I intended to do on vacation, just so he knew what to expect/when to cut me off. This time, though, I told him I was fully unplugging (minus one webinar with former USWNT stars Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly, Sam Mewis, and Leslie Osborne). Sam and I scheduled an in-depth meeting a few days before I left to go over everything and I sent detailed plans/instructions for how to handle anything she’d be taking over in my absence. While it helped that our vacation fell around a holiday weekend (Memorial Day), I stuck to my plan. I checked my email only once the entire trip and was barely on social media, instead enjoying daily sunrise hikes, a trip to the Honolulu Zoo, and uninterrupted beach time with Paul. My lovely biz partner/best friend took care of the rest.
It was awesome, and by far the most relaxed I've been for such an extended period of time since I graduated college. Plus, it was a nice reminder that you can take a few days away from work and the world won't end. In my case, it helps to have such a solid team around me. Knowing that Sam are Kylie had everything covered and were fully supportive of me taking time away allowed me to fully enjoy my vacation. But even if that's not the situation you find yourself in, know that you're much more likely to remember the vacation you took than the email you checked while on that vacation.
So take time off and don't be afraid to relax once in a while, because prioritizing you it'll make you a better person and team member. And remember, you're awesome and you belong here.
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