HAPPY HOLIDAYS
We’re well travelled at Cherish PR and this summer has seen a bumper crop of holidays from Spain to Seoul!
Yet apparently, we are taking less holiday, and with inflation and the cost of living, people are staying at home. Post-Pandemic, when our homes are increasingly becoming our workplaces, are we actually “getting away” at all? We decided to look at what type of holiday is best for relieving the stresses and strains of working in a busy PR agency in London. We found a few surprises that we thought we’d share.
According to research into stress, longer holidays aren’t necessarily better than shorter ones. At the University of Tampere in Finland, research by Jessica De Bloom, Ph.D., revealed that health and wellbeing rapidly increase after the start of the holiday and peaks around the eighth day. We’ve all been accused of checking our phones, marching up and down and twitching for the first few days of our annual “vacay”, before taking some time to wind down and acclimatise.
De Bloom’s work also points to more passive and social activities on holiday, so forget sightseeing or multi-activity holidays, simply lying on the beach with a cocktail and a good book is going to give you those positive health benefits. Stop feeling guilty, simply relaxing and doing nothing are great for our health.
Fitness experts also counsel taking a break from the gym on holiday and instead, walking, swimming and eating what you want and when you want is all not only acceptable but actively encouraged to treat mind, body and soul.
But then we ask that awful question, “what’s going on back home?”. All too often, hours spent at work preparing for holiday turn into dread of what’s waiting when you return. At Cherish, our values mean that we’re committed to supporting each other and that means making sure that we’re not burdening our workmates with big projects whilst we are away, but equally the expectation that things should have “ticked over” whilst we’re out of the office. We encourage a gradual return to the office by saying no meetings on the first day back, and we want everyone to share their holiday stories, recommendations of places to go and holiday snaps too. Overall, we recognise that without holidays, we’d all be a pretty miserable bunch to work with.
Check out our PR consultants’ holiday snaps on Instagram and share yours with us by tagging @CherishPR #wishyouwerehere