De-Stress Your Summer Vacation

by | Jul 5, 2006 | Observations

I posted a blog entry on June 21 about “fun” summer vacations – but clearly, not everyone is having fun.

Just yesterday, I heard a report on Good Morning America that Americans are awarded fewer vacation days than any other culture. Most notably, the French have an astounding 39 vacation days, while we have an average of only 14.

Still, I’ll take two weeks over two days any time, but can you really get away from it all? According to the GMA report, one in three vacationers reported they felt more stressed if they did not check their e-mail during their trips.

How can you de-stress your vacation? Taken from the GMA report, the author offers her views:

Identify a back-up. With productivity demands on workers today, it’s very realistic to assume that some of your work will have to be addressed while you’re away. Identify a colleague who’ll serve as your back-up – brief him or her on any key issues and tasks, leave organized files and notes. Offer to reciprocate when that person goes on vacation. This buddy system will lessen the pile-up of work and will lessen any disruption in work flow.

Change greetings. Make sure your voicemail greeting and out-of-office e-mail greeting clearly state that you’re on vacation with no access to messages. Offer an alternate colleague’s contact information for any time-sensitive issues. And be sure to reiterate that you will not respond until you return. That way you don’t have to worry that a client or contact is left uncared for — or thinks that you’re just not responding.

Give contact info to one person. Don’t tell everyone where you’re going or how to reach you! Let one key person know where to get you if something urgent arises that requires your attention. Really get away — which means they don’t call you, and you don’t call them.

Set limits on work. If you’re someone who just has to stay in touch, either because your boss expects it or because you want to, there’s nothing wrong with checking email here and there — as long as you’re not ruining your family’s vacation. But if your phone is constantly ringing and you’re clearly preoccupied with work, it’s not fair to everyone else. I spent my 10-day Christmas vacation working the whole time because I had a deadline to meet, and I didn’t realize how it was affecting my family until we got home and my daughter told someone that mommy worked the whole time. I’ll never make that mistake again. It wasn’t much fun for me, and clearly it wasn’t good for my family either. They put up with my work schedule all year round. The least I can do is give them 10 days of fairly undivided attention while on vacation. We all owe that to ourselves and the people we love.

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