“After the holidays, we face not only the same routine, responsibilities, work pace, or relationships – many of us also return to the same internal overwork dynamics. Metaphorically speaking, when we experience a physical injury, a usual rest break is not enough. Returning too early to intense exercise would only worsen our condition,” says K. Vitkauskas in a press release.
The body sooner or later asks to “repay the debt”
The problem, according to K. Vitkauskas, begins well before the first work week in September. If a person suppresses their needs for a long time, holidays become not a usual rest but an attempt to compensate for accumulated fatigue.
“Overwork or burnout occurs when we prioritize long-term future goals over our current needs and capabilities for a long time. Then the body starts demanding to ‘repay the debt’ – it hinders us from working in various ways and forces us to rest. If we can draw clear boundaries between work and leisure, shorter holidays may suffice because we recover well in daily life,” explains the psychologist.
Jūratė Jackytė-Kiršė, head of clinical research and regulatory strategy at “Pulsetto,” says it is worth talking not only about rest but also about stress resilience. It is impossible to remove tension from everyday life, so it is important how the body reacts to it and how quickly it recovers afterward.
“We are used to associating physical resilience with training – we understand that endurance or strength does not develop in one day. When talking about ‘stress fitness,’ we look similarly at stress resilience. The goal is not to avoid every stressful situation. It is more important that the nervous system can adapt to the load and return to a calm state afterward, rather than remaining in a danger mode for a long time,” says J. Jackytė-Kiršė.
According to her, that is why two or three calm weeks in summer should not be the only serious recovery period during the year.
“If we live all year from weekend to weekend and expect to compensate for several months of tension in two weeks of summer, the problem does not go away. Resilience is built daily: we experience a load, allow the body to recover, and then can cope with another load. The better this cycle works, the less our well-being depends on whether it is August or an intense September,” says J. Jackytė-Kiršė.
K. Vitkauskas agrees that stress regulation is a learned skill. According to him, it is not necessary to avoid stress – on the contrary, we learn by facing a load that we can still handle.
“It is very important for a person to be able to prepare for stress, tolerate it while experiencing it, and successfully recover afterward. In other words, it is important to regulate stress, not just avoid it. We learn to regulate stress when we face a tolerable level of it. For example, we can learn to swim properly only when we tolerate the tension experienced in the water, not when we panic that we will drown. The same applies at work – we develop stress regulation skills by experiencing a tolerable load,” says the psychologist.
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We should not have to “pay back” after holidays
There is another reason why the effect of summer rest can end quickly – the work we find upon returning. Karolis Blaževičius, executive partner at the recruitment and selection company “Indigroup,” says that an employee should not take holidays knowing that they will have to “pay back” for the free days later with a heavier workload.
“Employers must ensure that the employee does not feel ‘indebted’ to their workplace while on holiday. This is one of the worst practices. If an employee knows they will not be properly replaced and that their workload will accumulate during the holiday and need to be compensated afterward, they will not be able to rest and will feel great stress upon return,” says K. Blaževičius.
Therefore, according to him, a returning employee should not be met with the entire accumulated workload from their holiday. Especially in September, when many teams’ work intensifies simultaneously after summer.
“Accumulated work must be properly distributed, team leaders must understand that additional workload performing accumulated tasks immediately after holidays will cause extra stress, more mistakes will occur, and the rested employee will become tired again. In my opinion, the company culture itself can most complicate the return when the additional workload accumulated after holidays is not properly distributed and the employee is left alone to cope with it,” says K. Blaževičius.
He says some employers already apply a simple practice – helping the employee prioritize in the first days rather than expecting them to immediately handle everything that has piled up.
“The workload is reduced, and a work plan is made ahead so that the employee does not get lost in the volume of work and does not experience stress due to different work priorities; more frequent interim meetings are held to feel whether the employee is doing well or starting to burn out,” says the executive partner of “Indigroup.”
J. Jackytė-Kiršė adds that upon returning to a more intense work rhythm, one should not wait for the first signs of exhaustion. It is much more beneficial to consciously leave short moments during the day that help return to a calmer state after tension – a short walk, a few minutes of breathing practice, physical activity, or other individually suitable recovery methods can help.
“After returning from holidays, it is not necessary to set another goal for yourself – to not stress at all from now on. That is simply unrealistic. It is better to start with a very simple thing: notice when tension rises and not wait for the evening, weekend, or next holidays to allow yourself to recover. Even a few conscious switches during the day can eventually become a habit. Ultimately, we want not a life without stress but a body that can cope with it and return to balance afterward,” says J. Jackytė-Kiršė.
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