By Santificarnos.com

As millions of people the world over prepare for the height of the summer holiday season, there are several burning questions in the minds of employees and employers alike: Do vacations actually improve well-being and job performance? Just how much time off does it take to rebuild our resources and restore our sense of personal and professional satisfaction? And what's the best way to spend time away from the office - socializing with friends, taking a course or simply relaxing?

According to doctoral candidate Charlotte Fritz of the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, vacations and weekends do lower our stress levels and improve our sense of well-being. But watch out: The positive effects of time off fade quickly, making the European system of just o­ne, month-long vacation a bad idea. "We'd be much better off with several short vacations throughout the year," said Fritz.

Along with her colleague Sabine Sonnentag, Fritz has studied three key issues in the field of human resources: the effects of vacations and weekends o­n well-being and job performance, and the causal relationships between a worker's job and his or her mood. Fritz presented the results of all three papers - "Recovery, Health and Job Performance," "Vacation, Well-Being and Job Performance" and "Causal Relationships Between Mood and Job Performance" - at an IESE seminar organized by IESE Professor of Managing People in Organizations Steven Poelmans.

Let's begin with vacations. According to the results of Fritz and Sonnentag's longitudinal study of over 220 employees from 16 German universities, vacations do significantly decrease exhaustion and health complaints. They appear to replenish resources that can then be reinvested in work. While, surprisingly, participants reported the same level of task performance before and after vacation, they noticed that it took less effort to achieve a task after some time off.

But there's a catch. "We found that negative work reflection during vacation directly impacts health complaints," said Fritz. In other words, having negative thoughts about your job while o­n vacation can actually prevent you from recharging your batteries. o­n the flip side, positive reflection about your job during vacation has no significant impact.

Yet, according to Fritz, it won't take long before the euphoria fades. "We tested whether fade-out effects can be found after o­nly two weeks of vacation," said Fritz. "While others have found major fade-out effects at four weeks, we found that some of them begin o­nly two weeks after vacation." Health complaints, in particular, seem to return with a vengeance, said Fritz.

As for what people should do o­n vacation to optimize their sense of well-being, Fritz said, "Relax." Also, "mastery experiences" - learning new skills, taking a language class, or hiking up a mountain - seem to reduce exhaustion levels and improve job-related well-being when back at the desk. Of course, none of these ideas will work if an employee o­n vacation is faced with too many "non-work hassles." Flat tires, screaming children and personal conflicts can all prevent the rebuilding of resources. And what will quickly crush a feeling of post-vacation peace is an unwieldy, mountainous pile of work o­n the desk facing you when you return to the job.

Turning to weekends - those mini-vacations that we enjoy every week - Fritz found that, yes, they do help us recover from stress at work. According to her study of almost 90 German emergency medical service workers, thinking positively about o­ne's job during weekend leisure time increases feelings of job-related health. Also, getting together with family and friends is beneficial. "We found that social activity enhances a person's performance after the weekend," said Fritz. Yet, again, watch out for those nasty "non-work hassles," which can drain instead of build your resources.

Finally, Fritz and Sonnentag looked at how a person's mood relates to his or her job performance. A study of over 170 civil service employees in Germany revealed a relationship between good moods and proactive performance at work. "We found that putting me in a good mood in the morning makes me take charge in the afternoon," said Fritz. Another surprising result: "The more proactive a person is in the morning, the worse his or her state of mind in the afternoon." However, this last result is o­nly true for persons low in recovery. In other words, if we overexert in the morning, we will be exhausted and in a bad mood for the second half of the day.

Fritz and Sonnentag are also interested in what they call "spillover," the interface between conditions at work and at home. For instance, to what degree does a person's home life impact the job and vice versa?

Fritz summarized her findings with some important, practical advice to keep in mind as you pack your holiday suitcase: "While o­n vacation - whatever you do - don't think negatively about your job."


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