Analysis: How you feel after a bank holiday weekend, or any weekend for that matter, can be a reflection of how you view work and your free time
A long bank holiday weekend offers a lot of potential. It's the perfect time to go on a break, have an extra day to relax or spend more time with family and friends. While bank holidays usually leave people feeling more refreshed, others may be returning feeling down, or wondering how the days went by so quickly.
If you fall into the latter camp and find such feelings happening regularly, there can be several factors in play. One obvious area to look at is work. If you’re feeling down upon your return or you believe the benefits of a long-weekend disappeared the moment you clocked in, then it’s worth analysing why.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's History of the Weekend, 100 years after the Ford Motor Company introduced the standard five day week, Siofra Mulqueen looks at the history of the weekend
"If coming back to work is a problem, it could mean two things: the subjective feelings are enlarged, or work is becoming harder for people," said Dr Bert van den Bergh, former associate professor at The Hague University of Applied Sciences and co-author and co-editor of The Social Pathologies of Contemporary Civilization. "What’s really happening is circumstantial."
Not everyone shares the same job or career - for example, a 9-to-5 office worker will feel differently than someone who works shifts in retail - so the day you return to work may not matter. What may make a difference is how well you're able to keep your work and personal life separate in your mind. Some may find great meaning from their work, but that can end up overriding other aspects of your life.
"One of the things I’ve noticed is that some people just generally have a good boundary with work and not working," said Dr Kelly Dickson, associate professor in Global Health and Wellbeing at University College London and an Integrative Psychotherapist in clinical practice. "Whether it’s four days or three days, they can retain that boundary quite well and that line between when you’re working and not working is stronger for some people than it is for others."
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, why do some people manage stress better than others?
Much of this comes down to how well you can regulate your nervous system and be present in your life. Granted, sometimes work will pop into your mind as something important, like a presentation or deadline, is coming up. Yet how you approach those thoughts determines if it’s a fleeting moment or rumination.
"It's about being present to what you’re doing in the here and now," added Dickson. "Sometimes work just pops into our mind, but we just observe it like a train, and then it passes by. Sometimes thinking about it can be helpful, where you might go for a walk, to a gym or be shopping and you think of a good idea."
The pressure of filling up free time
Another element to consider is the feeling of using your free time sufficiently. Most people have some form of commitment on the weekend, which can include family, children, pets, and general chores. An extra day can help, but pressure to make the most of it can leave people overextending themselves too.
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From RTÉ Brainstorm, are you stuck in the wrong job? 5 signs it's time to move on
"For some people, free time becomes work as well," said van den Bergh. "They feel it has to be interesting, or that they have to do a lot. They impose on themselves a metre instead of fitting in with a rhythm."
The other element is that an extra day can feel like you’re midway between weekend and holiday. An extra day is enough to do more, but not enough to switch off like you would if you were on holidays. "If you’re on holiday, work might creep in but may slide after a couple of days," added Dickson. "But other times people could feel like they’ve got this one day, so let’s make the most of it."
Likewise, consumerism has fed into the idea of fulfilling your time, with Dickson mentioning DIY as one example. There is also the popularity of short getaways which are regularly tied in with upcoming bank holidays. While it's not just one element, these factors can combine in subtle ways to create a sense of pressure.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Brendan O'Connor, DIY tips for the bank holiday weekend
"There was a point where the bank holiday in the UK became about DIY," she said. "Same with the long getaway, make the most of it, go away for the weekend. That’s part of the productivity culture, and if you’re someone who likes to do a lot and work with something, it can sometimes feed into your leisure life as well."
When every Monday (or Tuesday) is a blue Monday
While the reasons for someone feeling down after a bank holiday can vary, one potential danger is to make it seem like a foregone conclusion rather than reflecting inward. Van den Bergh compares it to Blue Monday, which has persisted despite being proven that there is no real difference between it and any other Monday in the year.
While Blue Monday is a pseudoscientific construct, the term persists, and van den Bergh warns against using it to distract yourself from asking real questions. "Concerning Blue Monday, people are dodging a question: 'why am I so dissatisfied with my work?’" he said. "The same may go for post-bank holiday blues. When you speak about that, you don’t have to speak about the circumstances of your work, but when you have these blues when returning to work, there’s a problem there."
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Brendan O'Connor, how to truly rest on holiday
Using such a term can be useful if you’re referring back to your circumstances, he says, but if it’s used to explain away symptoms, it avoids the issue at hand. Van den Bergh notes that the timing isn’t relevant, since every Monday can be deemed Blue Monday. If you’re consistently feeling down returning to work after any break, be it a weekend or a two-week holiday, chances are something deeper is at play.
Ultimately, how you feel after a bank holiday weekend - or any weekend - can be a reflection of how you view work and your free time. In a world where we can fill up time with activities, there’s much to be said for doing things just for the love of it.
"There’s a bigger narrative about the permission to relax, and just being able to say you can actually take this day off," said Dickson. "It’s ok to just not have purpose, and to do things without necessarily having a narrative around why you’re doing them. They don’t need to become an identity, it’s just something you do, and that’s it."
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
