Re: Down time for a peel
“Downtime” refers to how long it takes your skin to fully recover from the peel. This doesn’t necesarily mean that you can’t go on with your normal daily activities.
With milder peels such as Lactic, Mandelic, Glycolic…if the % is lower and you don’t keep it on for too long…then your skin might be a bit pinkish/reddish for a day or two…and may be a bit flaky. You just need to be diligent about applying sunscreen and moisturizer. But you can still continue to go to work or do whatever else you do on a daily basis.
Now with much stronger peels such as TCA…people get something called “frosting”. This can also happen with Glycolic or Salicylic peels if you’re not careful and leave it on for too long. In this case…the skin turns white during the peel. That means there was actually a burn. The parts that turn white (ie. “frost”), will turn leathey/scabby and peel off. This can take a few days…upto a week. This is generally when people want to take a few days to stay in the house since the skin that’s frosted looks pretty horrible until it peels. Again this is a CHOICE. It doesn’t mean that you can’t continue going to work or doing other activities…but most prefer not to since their face looks like crap.
** On a side note, I experienced frosting with Salicylic peel 2 years ago on one of my cheeks. It was unintentional on my part (I left the peel on for too long). Although I continued going to work while “recovering” (I had no choice since the frosting wasn’t planned!)…I will say that I can see why people choose to recover at home. All my co-workers were literally horrified when they saw my face with the huge scab/burn on my cheek!
But with the milder peels such as Lactic, Mandelic…and even with Glycolic (in lower %)…you should be fine. 
I did a 40% Lactic Peel 2 weeks ago with no issues (face was a little pink for 2 days and a little flaky for about 4 days).