[Opinion] Holiday Aftermath

It is easy to spot workers suffering from “holiday aftermath” in office towns in the first week of September, which is considered the end of the summer holiday season. The great memories of vacation may linger on for a blessed few, but many people cannot pull themselves together afterwards due to lack of sleep and changes in biorhythms.

When a job search website conducted a survey among office workers at the end of August, 82.9 percent responded that they have experienced “holiday aftermath.” The joke that, “The people who need a vacation the most are those who have just returned from one” holds much truth.

Many workers want to choose the dates of their holidays instead of spending them in the summer when many other people take breaks. A report in the New York Times (NYT) says this practice, where workers can take a break whenever they want, is not such a desirable system. When IBM adopted an ‘unvacation policy’ in the early 1990s, its 350,000 employees had to stay alert even during their holidays as the boundary between work and vacation blurred. As a result of the new policy, the NYT reported that IBM workers had a heavier workload on their hands.

With an ‘unvacation policy,’ you can fix your holiday schedules with flexibility; it could be a mixture of several weekday plus weekend getaways or two long weeks of vacation. Your boss will not blame you for taking a day off tomorrow on a day’s notice. The company will not even count the total number of days you were off.

It is hard not to wonder why this seemingly fantastic system is failing. There is a simple explanation. Employees are not free from the pressure of maintaining performance. If students have an exam a week after a week of holidays, that would not be welcomed by the students. The same logic applies to workers.

French anthropologist Clotaire Rapaille, who wrote “The Culture Code” based on his observations of U.S. culture, regarded jobs as the ‘identity’ of American individuals. In other words, Americans regard themselves useless without any work to do. This is why American billionaires work harder to earn more money even when they already have great wealth, and baby boomers look for jobs even after their retirement. Korea is by no means behind the U.S. in putting a high value on efficiency at work. Although some people suffer “holiday aftermath,” short and constructive vacations seem more suitable to our office culture than an ‘unvacation policy.’

Chung Sung-hee, Editorial Writer, shchung@donga.com