when you reach your emotional limit

Taking time off from work is not synonymous with being unreliable. Frankly, when you reach your emotional limit, taking time off is a pretty responsible thing to do. We are human. We get burned out and need time off. This is neither weakness nor failure.

Roxane Gay is the author, most recently, of “Hunger” and a contributing opinion writer. Write to her at workfriend@nytimes.com.