Nicholas Craig column

Sep 2 2005 By Nicholas Craig, The Journal

This week is officially the last of the British summer. By now most of us have had the longest holiday break of the year and are back at our desk wondering why we aren't feeling relaxed, refreshed and recharged.

It could be because of the mountain of work and endless emails confronting us on our return, which instantly undid all the good injected by sun, sand and sangria.

Manchester University professor of psychology Cary Cooper says we are a pretty miserable lot around September time. He says 76% of employees estimate their stress levels are back to pre-holiday highs within a week of returning to work.

There are numerous surveys measuring employees' post holiday levels of misery that echo Professor Cooper's findings. Each gives advice on how to beat the blues.

Manpower's recommendations include clearing your desk and completing all outstanding projects before you go away. Begbies Traynor suggests that managers should make sure that all tasks have been delegated to colleagues during an employee's holiday. It sounds wonderful, if a trifle optimistic.

I think we should be more realistic. Two-week holidays cause stress before and after the event.

That's a fact which is unlikely to alter.

If post-holiday blues are so difficult to cope with, chop up your holidays into long weekends, and fly off far more often. The email mountain will be far less onerous as a result.

Let's also lobby for at least one bank holiday to fill the yawning gap between September and Christmas.

And another in February for good measure.

We have far fewer than the rest of Europe. The French and Germans have around 14, the Italians 16 - and we have a measly eight.

Try bringing a bit of your holiday spirit to your working life.

If you only swim when you're abroad, try doing it before or after work as well.

If you miss the relaxation, have a pamper day. Pick up a book during the evenings, as you did in the sun. We'd better leave the sangria, but you can still go to the beach - we have some of the best in Europe.

Try it - you will feel a lot less fed up, possibly slimmer and with more left in your pocket than you did at the end of a fortnight in the sun.

Nicholas Craig is a partner at Watson Burton LLP.