I'm usually pretty anal about meetings and deadlines. I couldn't believe I'd scheduled a major meeting in the middle of my vacation. I turned white, and she started laughing. She told me she'd help take care of it and then accused me of being in vacation denial.

Vacation denial? Philosophically, there's no way. Sure, it's a new job with a new team, and there's a lot to do. But getting away is still mandatory. And my vacation will be the best way to learn whether key controls and contingency plans are working. But I still hadn't blocked the time off on my calendar. If admitting I have a problem is the first step toward recovery, then here it is: "Hello, my name is Virginia, and I'm a workaholic."

If you've planned your vacations this year, good for you. This article is not for you. It's for all you geeks out there who love what you do, need to have control and know deep down that, well, Bob isn't really quite as good as you are. Now is the season for you to let go.

Facing my denial, I realized that I needed to change priorities. I needed to make sure that my documentation was in place; that the work that should go to my peers, my boss or my staff would go to the right people; and that they'd know how to do it. I needed to make sure that people were cross-trained and that my manager knew how to do the most critical parts of my job. (And don't tell me that your manager doesn't know a disk drive from a driveway. He hired you, so he can't be that stupid.) I needed to finish writing it all down, and I needed to automate those routine tasks that I said would be easy to do when I first started.

If you really don't know what to do with your work, share this with your boss and ask him what to do. You may be surprised to learn that he has a plan -- having figured out that if you didn't take a vacation, he'd find you under your desk someday, fried all crispy. So work it out with him and take the time off. Don't become a crispy mess.