Validate Emotional Sick Days

Working as a freelancer chains you to your inbox. You must always be alert in case someone agrees to send money in exhange for your services. On the subway, in the grocery store, at a family reunion — always.

Unless, that is, you have a reasonable excuse. Something like carpal tunnel, extended travel, or attending a conference. Something that justifies your absence from email. Those are preapproved for an auto-response and no one thinks twice.

What goes unspoken are the days of emotional injury, extended burn-out, or attending your own psychological breakdown.

No one puts “emotional sick day” in their auto-response. That’s not a justifiable excuse!

Let’s change that. Let’s equate mental strain to the physical, emotional pain to the bodily, and the need to “check out” with the act of checking in at an event.

Give ourselves permission to say, “Due to emotional illness, I will not be responding to email today.”