Teachers like me face stigma and guilt when we take a day off — and it's a big reason behind the mass exodus from my field

Taryn Williams is a teacher in a public school district in Alaska who feels guilty taking days off.
Incentives not to take days off and misperceptions about having summers free add to the problem.
She knows that she's a better teacher when she takes time off to recharge.

Taking paid time off has become a highly discussed topic in recent years, and there are headlines all over the internet about how people should be taking more time for themselves — a necessary reminder, as only 21% of employees took the full amount of leave that was available to them in 2020, according to a recent Priceline survey.

However, these conversations usually center around 9-to-5 jobs with flexible or generous vacation leave and don't usually include careers that follow different PTO systems.

Teachers have historically been left out of these conversations, because there's a prevailing belief that we already get enough time off. Add to that having to overcome the guilt of leaving our students, and the fact that we can actually lose money by taking personal time, and it becomes easy to go your entire career without ever taking a day off work.

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