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Too busy to go on holiday? Don't let stress – or indeed vanity – prevent you from getting away this year. Demetrios Matheou looks at the dangers of not leaving the office
Holidays are such hard work
They used to say that the perfect duration for a holiday was three weeks.
Two was no good because by the time you got used to being away, the clock
was ticking for your return. So three: one to acclimatise, one to really
get into your stride, then the third as the icing on the cake.
Three weeks, of course, is a luxury for many. But if there was ever a
time when the “longer the better” was the appropriate maxim,
it would be now. Because there is a new factor involved in holidaymaking
– the time it takes to recover from the agonies of getting away in
the first place.
A new survey of more than 5,000 workers has shown that one in five claim
to suffer from PHT – pre-holiday tension. You may well have experienced
it yourself. PHT is that pressure to ensure everything is done before
you go: to finish that project or report, to leave long and elaborate
briefs for your colleagues, to tie up every loose end. To ensure, in short,
that the office can function when you’re gone.
The survey, conducted by the internet jobsite 
reed.co.uk, shows
on average people are putting in an extra 9.2 hours outside of their normal
work time to prepare for their holidays.
The result of such dedication (or, it could be argued, the vainglorious
notion that other people can’t cope without you) is one or two or
maybe even a whole week of late nights, “finishing up”. So that
by the time you leave home for the airport or the motorway, you’re
a mess – tired, frustrated, worried.
Perhaps even more disturbing, is that PHT is now so bad that workers
will cut down the amount of holiday time they use, just to avoid the stress.
Only 40% of the people in the reed poll say they will take their full
holiday entitlement this year. Some respondents have even cancelled their
holiday at the last minute due to PHT.
Among the other findings are:
- 33% of people agree that PHT has got worse over the past three years
- 47% admit to worrying that something will go wrong in the office while they are on holiday
- 28% feel that important work decisions that they should be consulted on, will be made in their absence
- 10% feel that they will be made redundant while they are away.
Think about that last statistic: more than 500 people surveyed actually
tried to lay on a beach, or sit in a taverna or walk around a museum or
a zoo with their kids – imagining that someone at that very moment
was pulling the plug on their jobs.
The temperatures might be pushing 100 degrees outside, but inside people’s
heads there is an inferno of worry.
The need to succeed in one’s job, in a manner that is beneficial
– not detrimental – to one’s general well-being is at the
heart of UNISON’s work/life balance campaign.
“This is a very real issue for our members,” says UNISON policy
officer Ross Hendry. “This survey is not the first to suggest that
people are under pressure not to take the time off that they need.
“It’s all very well to be aware of the needs of the job you
are doing. At the same time, the whole point of leave is to give your
body and mind time to recuperate from the stresses and strains of work.
You can’t do that by taking a short break. You have got to take a
couple of weeks off at least.
“It’s a false economy to take just a few days holiday so you
can return to work quickly," Hendry adds. "Because you’re
coming back just as tired – and probably as inefficient – as
when you left.”
In terms of alleviating the worry of leaving work behind you, and satisfying
yourself that your tasks will be completed, both the reed survey and UNISON’s
work/life balance campaign suggest an answer – your workmates.
Sixty-six of those who answered the survey say that their colleagues
are “happy to help” them complete their workload before they
go away, and take on extra work in their absence.
“It’s encouraging that so many workers are stepping in to help
relieve their colleagues’ stress and reassuring them the office is
not going to fall apart while they are away,” says reed.co.uk managing
director Dan Ferrandino.
“Cancelling your holiday because the stress at work has become too
much is certainly not the answer – the best cure is a week or two
relaxing in the sun.”
One of the key messages of the work/life balance campaign, says Hendry,
“is that you all work in teams and in departments. It’s about
how you manage that work together, between yourselves.”
The kind of flexible working options promoted by the campaign, he adds,
“should not just be available to parents, but to all members of the
team. So that together you can work out how you best fulfil the obligations
you have – the targets you have to meet, the services you have to
deliver – in a way that is not just 9 to 5, but is more creative.
“I think holiday time should be approached as an extension of that
principle. If you go away, then other people will be able to cover for
your work, just as you will be able to cover for them.”
It is so very British to make a meal of holidays. Let’s not forget
that many Brits make appalling travellers: we want everywhere we go to
be like home, we don’t like the food, we don’t like the sun,
our skin travels a galaxy of pinks before it ever finds brown.
But we shouldn’t let our bosses exploit this latent fear of holidays.
“There is an underlying issue here,” says Hendry, “which
is that in public services people are expected to do a lot and often the
targets they are given are not realistic.
“UNISON has very little formal problems with abuse of the working
time directive. But informally, we know that lots of people are working
more hours than they should and it’s going unrecorded.”
So now that I’ve written this feature, I feel a holiday coming on.
Yes, I can think of plenty of other features I could be writing. But the
website is looking pretty healthy at the moment and I know my colleague
across the desk would more than happily write one himself. OK, where shall
I go…
Contact the article's author
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NURSES ORGANISING THEIR OWN TIME Nurses in a number of hospitals around the country
have started to organize their own work rosters – in the
kind of initiative that could put an end to PHT. Traditionally, a senior nurse would have responsibility
for work rosters for the 24:7 demands on the nurses. But in a
number of departments nationwide, nurses themselves have got together
and elected to make their own schedules. It’s a leap of faith on the part of managers,”
says Ross Hendry, “a huge commitment of trust in the staff.” The result is that the nurses have greater control
over their time, as well as flexibility; while the managers don’t
have to worry so much themselves about how their department is
running in their absence. Of course, the rosters still need to be signed
off by administrators, admits Ross, but it’s a step in the
right direction. “And what the nurses are doing is probably
formalising what lots of other public service workers have been
doing, informally, for a long time,” he adds, “especially
if it’s shift work.” Now others need to follow suit. USEFUL LINKS
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