Vacation over? So it goes back to work stress -free

The deep mood after the vacation has a name: “Post-Holiday syndrome” describes the phenomenon that people do not recover after the holidays, but feel tapped and listless. Anyone who thinks that they are pretty alone is wrong. According to investigations, up to two thirds of the employees could be affected, reports psychologist Jürgen Walter. The mood depth after the vacation can often not be completely avoided. A good preparation can prevent the stress from breaking again immediately.

The gentle return is ideally initiated weeks before the vacation. “Urgent work should be done before the vacation,” recommends Walter. Extra strict deadlines can ensure the necessary motivation. Even if a project could actually be done immediately after the holidays, the homemade time pressure is worthwhile. Because it often takes twice as long to read again after the vacation. And in the worst case, the “impending” work during the vacation always remains subconsciously present.

Walter warns of unnecessary perfectionism. Really to get everything off the table can degenerate into unnecessary stress, which then has to be dismantled at the beginning of the vacation, the coach warns. His recommendation: prioritize the really important tasks early on and plan time buffers to equalize the sprint before the vacation.

The colleagues who represent you during the vacation also benefit from the good planning. For Walter, representation is even the most important factor when it comes to stress in and right after the vacation. “You can save yourself a lot of work and trouble about a good agreement with colleagues,” he found. For him, this includes: inform the representation in good time and comprehensively about important tasks, appointments and deadlines. Such a conversation is also recommended with the manager.

A good absence note is also one of the central factors that decide on the good or woe after the vacation. It is often inevitable that hundreds of unread emails are waiting for the return. In the best case, however, colleagues and customers have meanwhile contacted the representation mentioned in the absence note with important concerns and the topic has already been done for the returnee.

However, if you are trying to automatically forward detailed emails during your vacation as a precaution: Caution. If an email is forwarded, this usually applies as the processing of personal data, warns lawyer Jan Austernbeck. And there are strict regulations, especially through the General Data Protection Regulation. Anyone who wants to forward emails therefore needs the sender’s consent, according to the lawyer.

Many a company actually enables holidaymakers in the inbox Tabula Rasa. Daimler introduced the “Mail on Holiday” program in 2014. This allows employees to have emails deleted from the system during their absence. “Senders receive an automatic notification that they should turn to a representation,” explains a spokeswoman for Mercedes-Benz. “When the employees come from vacation, start with a clean desk.”

According to the group spokeswoman, whether an employee uses the offer is not recorded centrally. Whose company does not offer such a program should not delete unread emails, according to Austerbeck. According to the lawyer, this also applies if the mass of messages means considerable additional effort. There is no “reasonableness limit” when processing the digital letter mountains.

Walter therefore considers a middle ground to be justifiable. Many psychologists and lawyers urge to separate vacation and work as strictly as possible. After all, the right to relax is legally laid down. “Yes, you should switch off on vacation and not be accessible to the boss and colleague,” emphasizes Walter. But some people could simply recover better if they kept relaxed contact.

According to the management consultant, this should not mean that they can be constantly accessible by phone. But it could pay off to view a few minutes of messages every day. “So you don’t have to worry about missing something and will not be killed by the many emails at the end of the vacation,” he says.

However, this preparatory work is a balancing act. Because if problems arise unforeseen, it can quickly destroy the recovery effect on vacation. “Above all, you should listen to your feeling whether and how much contact with the office during my vacation time is still good for me,” says Walter.

A variant, also for solo self-employed: The most important customers receive a separate email address for the vacation that is diverted to the private mailbox. According to Walter, sleep is often overlooked when it comes to stress -free return to the job. His advice: approach the sleep rhythm of the working week again a few days in advance.