While many people struggle to get time off, I think a big part of it is that people feel guilty when they take time off, even if their employers allow it. Do y

While many people struggle to get time off, I think a big part of it is that people feel guilty when they take time off, even if their employers allow it. Do you honestly believe people in the caliber of Matt Cutts, Jeff Dean or Simon Peyton Jones, etc would suffer any negative career consequences whatsoever even if they took a year or two off? Many of the larger companies in the US are actually quite generous with family leave (Google has 3 months paid vacation for dads and 6 months for moms, although it might be the outlier here, it is by far the most family-friendly workplace I've seen), but it is the overachiever mentality that prevents people from taking the time off even if their employers allow them to. Sure, you will probably not promote that year if you take 3 months off, but its a matter of priorities. I've consistently taken 6 weeks off a year since I started working 8 years ago, even though my allotted vacation time for the first few years was two weeks. I don't believe my career has suffered as a result of that.