Mixing Work and Vacation

Ryan Healy vindicated?

Self-appointed Gen Y spokesman, Ryan Q Healy, recently declared that vacations are dead. Was I was depressed when I heard that. Is there any meaning in life without vacations? I didn't think so and, in desperation, I lashed out at the lad.

But, now, a more articulate writer has explained what poor Ryan was trying to say.

1. You're going to a go-go but you don't want to come back to a thousand emails. So for a few minutes every day you take your martini over to a computer and sort thru your mailbox or some such thing.

2. You want to go away for a long weekend but you are needed in the office for an hour on Friday afternoon. No problem. Take off on Thursday night and log into a conference call or web meeting at 4pm on Friday. It cuts into your time off but without the technology you wouldn't have any time off, period, see?

But then there's "Old Europe". Always the holdout.

Some experts believe the European way – usually four to six weeks of holidays annually – is healthy, giving the mind and body time to completely rest.

Maybe this is where Sarkoszy can start kicking some European butt.

The downside of work / vacation blending? You know that once some people sit down at the computer they will not be able to get away. What does that mean? Angry husbands, angry wives. More divorce, unhappy kids, decreased productivity due to stress. Then twenty years from now some dope will discover grandpa's remedy for workplace blues. Can you guess? A vacation without technology.

Comments

[William]

The reinterpreted reason are spot on and what I use as I find it almost impossible to disconnect. I'm so guilty of this.

[Colin Kingsbury]

Well, Sarko is taking only two weeks off this August, and is planning on spending it on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, if you can believe it. Next thing you know we'll find out he's drinking Chablis and eating American cheese.