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Yes, Post-Vacation Burnout Is a Thing
If a holiday is supposed to leave you refreshed and restored, why are you often more tired than when you left?
Have you ever come back from vacation feeling like you badly needed, well, a vacation?
Complaining about how exhausted you are after a week in Cancun isn’t going to win you any sympathy from co-workers, but it isn’t unusual to experience a crash, even after a lovely holiday.
It’s increasingly clear that skipping vacation — as more than half of Americans do — is bad for health and productivity, increasing your risk of both depression and heart attacks. It can also contribute to burnout, a syndrome recently defined by the World Health Organization as exhaustion, negativity, and loss of professional efficacy. Multiple studies suggest that detaching from work on vacation makes us more productive and creative.
But time away isn’t always relaxing — particularly if you spend it flying with kids, appeasing in-laws, or checking email — and reentry can be brutal. An overflowing inbox and multiple fires to put out can leave you feeling more drained and frazzled when you return to your desk than when you left.
With post-vacation burnout, as with most things, prevention is better than cure. Here are some tips…
