Scientific interpretation

Of all emotions, anxiety is the one that is most widely mentioned, both in anticipation of returning than following the return:

• The day before the returning to work: the factors that contributed to the anxiety were the returning to a work schedule, the oversights and the fear associated with potential changes in the workplace;
• Once back to work: the most common factors that contributed to the anxiety were the accumulated work, the organization of tasks, the lack of concentration and the reactions of colleagues.

3. Strategies used to overcome negative feelings

From the previous results, different strategies are used from the employee to overcome negative emotions and feelings.

Strategies to overcome negative feelings:

• Resignation;
• Maintaining a positive attitude;
• Maintaining focus on the job;
• Planning;
• Hobbies.

Strategies to overcome anxiety:

• Planning daily and weekly activities, with the help of family members (meals, chores, shopping, etc.);
• Set priorities and prioritize late work.

Strategies to overcome difficulties in managing household and family tasks:

• Activity planning to reduce stress in order to restore work-life balance.
• Organizing daily and weekly activities in advance, most with the help of family members;

Strategies to overcome the difficulties of managing professional tasks:

• Set priorities;
• Give priority to overdue work.

Strategies deployed by the employer to help employees adapt to the return:

• The participants in the study all mentioned that their employer did nothing to facilitate the readjustment of tasks upon returning to work;
• Employees participating in the study raised a common expectation that the employer would clearly and quickly communicate information about what happened during their absence.

• Organizing information meetings with employees upon their return from holidays to make them aware of everything that happened during their absence;
• Implement a new process of resocialization aimed at a better reintegration.
• Keep in mind that not all the information available is necessarily useful for every employee. Indeed, too much information may create an overload to the employee. Depending on the case, it is better to target the relevant information.

• During the holidays, the organization should avoid phone calls and emails outside office hours.
• When returning to work, establish work-life balance practices to facilitate the recovery of the routine;
• Remain aware of the potential difficulties that employees may experience when returning to work and communicate available support options

• Provide the ability for a more flexible schedule or schedule and the assignment of less complex and demanding tasks within few days of returning can facilitate readjustment to the work routine.

COMMENTS FROM OUR EXPERTS

As mentioned above, holidays are one of the measures that can be used to promote employee health and well-being. The privilege to “refuel” can contribute, more broadly, to organizational health. The general difficulties identified during the return may seem paradoxical: how can an annual holiday, recognized to facilitate the reconciliation between work and personal life, lead to such difficulties? On a “practical-practical” level, the following question is essential: can the difficulties documented by the authors be prevented?

It seems indeed possible to prevent these difficulties … With a minimum of planning, flexibility, communication and support.

Planning for the return of vacation combined with less time or workload could prevent difficulties reported by the authors in terms of work-life balance.

Workplaces can put several measures in place to provide their employees with flexibility in scheduling or task management:

 – Working time arrangements, which are well documented to facilitate work-family balance, allowing for flexible work options (e.g., flexible or variable work schedules and banked hour usage); and

 – The adaptability of work organization, which allows a certain flexibility in the way workers can organize their work, which can e.g., result in sharing certain tasks with colleagues;

In concrete terms, an employee who has greater flexibility in organizing its work could collaborate with colleagues before their holidays and assign them important tasks during their absence. In anticipation of its return, the employee could establish a list of keys “to dos” and plan a “buffer” period by rearranging some of their tasks during the first days of return. The buffer period would then allow him to reacclimate, to return emails and, if necessary, to better respond to emergencies. This planning opportunity is an interesting feature of holidays: it can be more easily planned than other types of leave (e.g., certain absences due to illness). All in all, the two measures mentioned above can be put in place, not only to facilitate the returning to work after a holiday, but also to promote work-life balance.

Communication and Support: Practices to Prevent Anxiety

The article also mentions that workers frequently experience anxiety when returning to work after a vacation. In this regard, communication is a particularly well-documented good practice for returning to work after a disability, since it allows for a dialogue about the fears and expectations of everyone when returning to work. Facilitating the expression of fears on return (e.g., as part of a “post-holiday” lunch), in addition to strengthening the connection with the workplace, can also aid in finding solutions to problems that may arise. Therefore, more broadly, communication is a practice closely related to that of support, also recognized to facilitate work-life balance.

Some nuances and additional details

It should be noted that, depending on the country and region of interest, holidays are governed by various provisions, which affect their duration (e.g. 4 weeks in Portugal, 5 weeks in Sweden and France, 2-3 weeks in Quebec). Knowing that returning to work after a prolonged absence is generally more complex than short-term absence, it seems essential to adapt the preferred practices according to the context.