IN THIS ISSUE

20.05.18

Can you remember the last time you took a holiday that was purely a holiday? Where you didn’t give a second’s thought to your life at home? I know I can’t. For the past 20 years, my vacation time has been punctuated with work: checking magazine pages, making ‘just a quick’ phone call. And that’s without the mental workload, those times when it looks as though I’m lazing on a sunlounger but I’m actually fretting about an email that says something like, ‘Hope you’re having a great break, Jo, but when you’re back we need to have a chat.’ Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Holidays are a luxury not everybody gets. And the ‘half holiday’ is something I’ve made my peace with. As a native Australian, if I want to spend a decent amount of time seeing my family, I know it means waking up to answer emails overnight from Britain.

But our report on the demise of the two-week break has me wondering if I’m kidding myself – not to mention cheating myself out of feeling truly rested. I’m not alone: on average we are taking shorter holidays and not switching off when we’re there. I’ve never questioned the new ‘normal’ way to holiday. We owe it to ourselves and our families to have healthy, stress-relieving, quality downtime. It’s kinder to our colleagues, too, if they’re working with someone whose mood has had a genuine reset.

Ironically, as a schoolgirl I remember getting a ticking off for writing ‘Nothing’ when I was asked to produce an essay entitled, ‘What I Did on My Summer Holidays’. I salute that cheeky, lazy little girl. I’d like to ask her how she managed it. I’m going to try to channel her this summer and attempt to resurrect the good, old-fashioned Real Holiday. So if you know of a remote island that the internet has forgotten, let me know.

Enjoy the issue.

“WE OWE IT TO OURSELVES TO HAVE HEALTHY, QUALITY DOWNTIME”