Comments on: Top five tips to beat the post-vacation blues

By: Sharon Wilson

Sharon Wilson — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:05:38 +0000

Great Points- Really liked what you had to say about this topic.

By: Eric Antariksa

Eric Antariksa — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 07:36:10 +0000

I like my job so much so that I feel I have vacation time every single day.

By: Sara at On Simplicity

Sara at On Simplicity — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:44:19 +0000

I find that I usually need a vacation after my vacation! Trying to pack so many fun experiences into a couple of weeks is exhausting…

I love that you mentioned asking for help. It’s something we’re not trained to do, but can benefit everyone. It helps develop team bonds and well, it’s fun to play with others! I definitely need to work on asking for help when it’s merited.

By: Fundbüro – Lesenswertes aus dem Netz ... auf Karriere-Bibel

Fundbüro – Lesenswertes aus dem Netz ... auf Karriere-Bibel — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 09:03:01 +0000

[...] Officer Alexander gibt fünf Tipps wie man den After-Holiday-Blues überwinden [...]

By: Rob in Madrid

Rob in Madrid — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:01:30 +0000

loved the graph!

By: Jef

Jef — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:47:12 +0000

This is easier said than done for some. When you are more or less the guy that the business depends on, it is tough to get away in the first place. The work does pile up when you are gone and it can be very hard to deal with the giant pile of work that is there when you get back. I try to take smaller vacations but take more of them. However, with these gas prices, I haven’t gone anyone in months.

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:14:05 +0000

Boy oh boy did I experience this recently. I was in Europe for two weeks in June-July and did not do anything work-related while away. It was such a marvelous, eye-opening experience, and I was in four countries in two weeks. Let’s just say coming home to a place with terrible public transportation, no universal health care, minimal vacation days was hard enough, but returning to a cube after two weeks of day after day in the outdoors was difficult. What did I do to beat the blues? I kept looking through my pictures from the trip over and over again, trying to relive the wonderful moments from afar. I also blogged about many of the things I learned while abroad, both for my work and personal blog, so that made me sooort of feel like I was still on vacation. But I’m not sure there’s any real cure for the post-vacay blues….who wants to go back to work after a kick-ass trip? I could have stayed in Europe for a few more months — then maybe I’d be really ready to come home. I was starting to miss ice and air conditioning.

By: Interview Coach - Paul

Interview Coach - Paul — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:51:50 +0000

Yes some very good points. Just back from a break and I brought my laptop and mobile. So was it really a break?

By the way – another way to get over the post-vacation blues – ANOTHER HOLIDAY!!

By: Mike King

Mike King — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:09:45 +0000

Great Tips! I’ll agree that these definitely work. Staying completely disconnected from work I think if the most important point. If you do that on a regular basis outside of your normal work day however, its even EASIER to avoid those downer days whether its just after vacation or not.

By: Bay

Bay — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:24:27 +0000

Alex

A constructive and helpful piece – for those that feel they want and/or need help, which clearly not everybody does.

I have just returned from a two week break (where I had no email or phone contact) and (more by luck than judgement) somehow followed many of the tips prescribed in the linked piece about getting the most from a holiday. I have therefore returned totally refreshed and replensihed and raring to go.

This of course means that I am in great danger of not following this advice because I am throwing myself into catching up on the inevitable backlog, as much so that I can press on with the important things as anything. I have, again through instinct rather than conscious planning, managed to avoid the pitfall of hitting the downward spiral depicted on your graph, by simply holding over the less urgent things and not straining to get everything done. For example I still have 44 unread emails, but they are all things that I can address at my leisure.

I would therefore quibble with your graph. I don’t think it is returning to work per se that causes the massive downward spiral you show. I think that is the result of returning to work and finding that objectives, tasks and deadlines set, have not been met. If, as Mark says, the team has done all that was expected while you have been away, there is no problem. If not this means that one effectively returns to the same issues that one had before disappearing, and that will cause an immediate reversion back to the same emotions and thus the same mental state, with the fatigue and ennui that one had before, undoing much of the benefit of the holiday.

In the bigger scheme of things and in the context of your crusade for happiness at work, I guess that means it is important one has the right environment to work in, including people that you can trust and rely on!.
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