We’ve recover an article here from the blog which talked about time after holidays, in order to contextualized also the times of uncertainty we all live nowadays due to the recent pandemic that spread across the globe. Whether you stayed at home doing remote work or were affected by it and lost your job but needed to also stay at home before applying to a new job, getting back to work reality could indeed be stressful and leave depressed similar to what happens when you come back to some deserved holidays.

Whether you got used to a different lifestyle that saw you consuming more hours of for example Netflix series, staying up until late and seeing short format adult videos like the ones offered by porn related TikTok new apps or the latest stats about coronavirus in your country, getting back to regular daily quotidian could see your mood changing if you haven’t really thought about it yet.

The tips we give you here in the article for getting back to work after being so much time inside your home are in fact quite similar to what we’ve discussed here before on the topic of getting back to work after holidays and that’s why we recover them here, basing them in some practical tips gathered in an interviewed by Calixto Plumed, a Madrid based psychologist at the Nuestra Señora de La Paz Clinic. As she points, in most cases, months like September means saying goodbye to vacations and rest days, returning to work, routine, and the dreaded « post-holiday depression.  points out, « the post-vacation syndrome, better known as post-vacation stress or depression, turns out to be a set of symptoms that manifest themselves when we join our obligations, whether they are work, family or study, after a period of vacation. It is not accepted as an illness, nor does it manifest itself in all people. As he explains, »it is not something sickly, and it is only a normal reaction of the human being to the cessation of an activity, in general, pleasant ».

According to statistics, 5 percent of the population on vacation suffers from it, and others even claim that up to 30 or 35 percent of the population have these feelings. Feelings that tend to go away after 10 or 15 days. People who are more prone to it are between 45 and 55 years old and have experienced a change in their biological rhythms (customs, schedules, etc.) during their holidays.

Avoid feeling bad physically and mentally

Identifying this so-called bad syndrome is based on the sensation you have when you return to your job after finishing your rest period, with apathy, followed by fatigue or lack of energy to perform the tasks. In some cases, you may even have a headache, anxiety, or general discomfort. The most common manifestations are lack of concentration, irritability, sadness, fatigue, etc.

As Calixto Plumed points out, this depressive manifestation after the return to routine « is caused by not having understood that vacations are a change of occupation and, as such change must be adapted to both the outward and return and not in a hasty manner. The best remedy, therefore, is prevention: doing an activity that we like and enjoying a relaxing holiday « are the best ways to avoid the discomfort that results in a return to routine.

But if the work tends to be stressful and the holidays have been too busy, the psychologist gives us some advice that will help to overcome the post-vacation symptomatology:

  1. Get up early a few days before returning home.
  2. Have a special office routine for that morning.
  3. Make a fun and not too late plan to do after work.
  4. See the bright side.
  5. Cutting off recurring thoughts.
  6. Don’t get busy on the first day. Progressively approaching work activities.

In addition, he warns that the most frequent and intense family or group living together these days also make other manifestations appear that were hidden during the routine of the rest of the year, as well as « the excesses and wanting to reach everything that is presented to us, makes them become a source of stress days that should serve to change occupation or activity. She also adds that you should take care of our body, « also on vacation and learn to listen to it so that it does not complain and so that we do not maltreat it. Once again, the balance is the right thing to do.