So it's back to work. The return to work following the bank holiday weekend also signals the end of the holiday season so everyone's back and its heads down until Christmas. Why is it that once you have been back a couple of weeks it feels like you've never been away? Well it doesn't help that it takes so many of us four days into the holiday to fully unwind and 18 percent find it so difficult to switch off they never completely relax or stop thinking about work. This is according to a survey by on line recruitment agency Monster.co.uk. It certainly rings true with me. Amongst senior managers there are those who don't think about work once they are on the plane and don't start thinking about it again until the return flight. Then there are those who can't switch off their lap top or mobile phone or resist reading their emails. One Director I worked for spent the first week of his two weeks holiday in Wales ringing me daily to ask if there were any problems. He seemed disappointed and disbelieving when each time I said there were none. The second week he returned to work leaving the family in Wales. I asked him why he came back early and he said because he was bored. He then told me he was still officially on holiday and had instructed his PA not to book in any meetings. He spent the week wandering in and out of people’s offices being a nuisance and making people feel uncomfortable. It's not difficult to guess which type of manager is easier to work for, which gets stressed and irritable and which ends up being forced out. Blair McPherson author and commentator on management issues www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
