The ‘Right’ Way to Holiday for Longevity

Two men, two holiday plans. Gary is onto it and Barry isn’t.

Let me tell you a story about Gary and Barry.

Both men work at Garish Gizmos, the manufacturer of the loudest and most lurid gizmos in all of the South East portion of Sydney’s upper North West.?

It’s the end of the year and while Gary is getting a bit tired, as most people do around this time, Barry is basically crawling to Christmas.?

They’re both hard workers and great at the Gizmo game, but there are a few key differences that might explain why Gary is OK and Barry is struggling.

Barry gives 100% effort everyday.

He works from sunup to sundown and often beyond.

Gary gives about 85% effort most days.

There are days when he has to put in more but most of the time he works hard without pushing himself to the brink.

Barry’s energy output is redlining.

He’s mentally strong and prides himself on being able to push harder than everyone else.

Gary knows the importance of replenishing as much energy as he uses each day and prioritises his recovery.

Barry doesn’t have time to exercise.

Gary makes time to exercise.

Barry will sacrifice sleep to get a bit more work done.

Gary will stop working so he can get a good night’s sleep.

Barry grabs whatever he can for lunch and eats at his desk.

Gary preps a healthy lunch and eats it outside with his mate Joanne.

Barry saves up his leave and takes 4 weeks at Christmas every year.

Gary takes shorter, more frequent holidays throughout the year.

For Barry, his holidays are a necessity.

They’re his chance to switch off and recharge after a gruelling 12 months of work.

The first week he is almost always crook and it takes him a while to get out of work mode and into holiday mode.

Whilst he enjoys the time away, there’s a sort of pressure placed on his holidays to replenish as much energy as he can before he has to go back to the grind - like taking a deep breath before a long underwater swim.

As a result, he spends the last week dreading going back and when he does there’s a long re-adaptation period where he has to get up to speed on all that’s been happening while he’s been away.

January is the worst month for Barry because he knows his next holiday is 11 months away and in between he has to do it all over again.

For Gary, his holidays are a joy.

He uses them not so much to restore his waning energy levels but to top up his vigour.

He tends to take shorter, more frequent holidays throughout the year which always gives him something to look forward to and means he doesn’t miss out on too much while he’s away.

Because of that, he feels rested and relaxed from his break but still plugged into the goings on in the Gizmo space so there’s little to no re-adaptation needed when he gets back to his team.

The irony is that for all the hard work Barry puts in, his performance tends to diminish as the year goes on and he gets less and less return for more and more effort, whereas Gary gets a high rate of return year-round.

Barry might get more done in a day than Gary, but Gary gets more done in a month, a year, a career, than Barry.?

Now, there’s no right way or wrong way to holiday, not really, but there are sustainable and unsustainable ways to approach work and life.

If we’re replenishing our energy each day then we don’t ‘need’ a holiday, we just use our breaks to do the fun stuff we don’t have time for while we’re working.?

We do our best to set up our work and our lives so that it’s not something we feel we need to take a break from.

That’s what Gary does.

We should all be more like Gary.

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My name is Phil and I'm a workplace wellbeing specialist.

Cool! But what does that mean?

It means I work with organisations to upskill their people so they can be healthy and well under any circumstances...

...whilst also helping the organisation to optimise their circumstances to make it easier for their people to be healthy and well.

If this sounds like something you could use, send me a DM.