7 tips to reduce work stress after the holidays



With the Obon and summer holidays over, many working adults are likely facing difficult times after the holidays. Experts have suggested seven techniques to help people get through such times.

Holiday over? Seven expert tips for how to avoid back-to-work stress

https://theconversation.com/holiday-over-seven-expert-tips-for-how-to-avoid-back-to-work-stress-236903

According to the UK Health and Safety Executive, 55% of lost working days in the UK are due to work-related ill health, and 51% of work-related ill health is due to 'stress, depression and anxiety'.

Returning to work after a holiday can be especially stressful, and the refreshed feeling you had after a long holiday can be ruined the moment you return to work.



Cary Cooper, a professor of organizational psychology and health at the University of Manchester in the UK, has summarised seven ways to avoid the 'post-holiday stress trap':

◆1: Reuniting with a colleague
According to Cooper, social connection is essential to maintaining health and wellbeing in the workplace, so spend the first hour of your first day back on the job reconnecting with your colleagues by sharing stories and experiences from your holiday.

2. Adjust your workload
A large number of emails in your inbox can cause a stress response, so trying to clear them all on the first day can be too much of a burden and can even lead to you replying in a way that causes trouble. For example, if you respond in a rude manner that you normally wouldn't, you could leave a bad impression on the other person.

So Cooper recommends skimming through all your emails, marking only the most urgent ones, then replying and postponing the rest for another day.

◆3: Take short breaks
During the first week after returning to work, it's a good idea to take a break and have a cup of coffee or tea every day during your break or lunch. If you work in an office, you can also invite a colleague to take a break or leave the office and have a meal outdoors, such as in a park, to relax.



◆4: Go home on time and avoid working long hours
Cooper's recommendation to leave work early isn't to laze around in front of the TV, but to get active. He urges people to get into holiday mode by hitting the gym, going for a run, or going out to eat with family and friends.

◆5: Don't schedule too many meetings
Meyer Friedman and Ray H. Rosenman, American cardiologists and proponents of the “

Type A behavior pattern ,” which summarizes the characteristics of people who are prone to heart disease, pointed out in their 1974 book “TYPE A BEHAVR&YR HEART” that “people in an office environment tend to be obsessive about time management.”

For this reason, Cooper said, 'Don't have a bunch of meetings to show people you're back at work and getting to work. Don't try to get through everything in your inbox within 48 hours.'

◆6: Take your coworkers' complaints with a pinch of salt
A colleague who constantly complains and insists that their problems are never resolved can be a source of stress, especially if you've just returned from a stress-free holiday. Listen to them with tolerance and patience, but don't take them too seriously, she says.

7. Set realistic work goals
Cooper advises avoiding setting impossible deadlines and booking unnecessary appointments, and politely declining any work that you can't complete in your first week back on the job.



As author Studs Terkel writes in his acclaimed book Working!:

'Working means seeking not only daily bread but daily value, not only cash but gratitude, not only boredom but excitement. In other words, it means pursuing life itself, not spending Monday through Friday like a dead person.'

However, vacations are also a great opportunity to recover from the stresses of the modern workplace, and Cooper advises using the seven techniques mentioned above to ensure the refreshing effects of your vacation last even after you return to the workplace.

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