Holidays are usually an opportunity to recover energy. But perhaps they can be more than that: they are also a time to understand what our body and mind are telling us about the way we are working and what we want to do differently when we return.

There is a phrase we often hear as the holidays approach: “I really need to stop.” And there is another one we frequently hear a few weeks after returning: “It feels as though I was never on holiday.” I recognise both.

Over the years, through my own experience and the conversations I have with leaders and teams, I have realised how many people reach their holidays in a state of accumulated tiredness. Not necessarily unable to “function”, but undoubtedly with less energy, less mental space and, often, with the feeling that they need some time before they can truly “switch off”.

Perhaps that is why I would like to offer a point for reflection this summer: What does it really mean to recover?

We know that stopping and recovering are not exactly the same thing. We may be physically on holiday and still mentally at work. We may not open the computer and yet spend the day anticipating what we will find when we return. We may check our email “just for a moment”, reply to that message because “it’ll be quick”, or continue to solve a problem mentally while sitting at the table with our family. In short, the body has left the office. Attention has not always followed.

This distinction is supported by research on recovery from work. Sabine Sonnentag and Charlotte Fritz, two of the leading researchers in this field, identified four types of experience that contribute to recovery: psychological detachment from work; relaxation; learning or challenge experiences undertaken for pleasure; and a sense of autonomy over what we do with our time.

As is easy to understand, replenishing our energy does not necessarily mean doing nothing. For some people, it may mean reading for hours. For others, walking, cooking, swimming, learning something new, talking without rushing, or simply being in silence. There is no universally “right” activity. What matters is being able to create conditions in which we reduce work-related demands and regain some choice over where we place our energy and attention.

But there is a question that, for me, is important to ask: Can we really switch off?

We tend to treat recovery as an individual responsibility, and it is true that it largely depends on personal discipline. Learning to identify signs of tiredness, understanding which tasks or breaks are more restorative, and applying them in everyday life is fundamental. However, organisational culture and leadership also have a concrete role to play here.

Recent research by Sonnentag and colleagues shows that employees are more likely to detach psychologically from work when they perceive that their leaders respect the boundaries between work and personal time. This detachment is, in turn, associated with less exhaustion and a greater sense of recovery the following day.

It is not enough to tell someone, before their holidays, “rest and enjoy yourself”, if two days later we send a message that begins: “Sorry to bother you, I know you’re on holiday, but…” — and, incidentally, adding “you don’t need to reply” does not always solve the problem.

For a leader, supporting recovery can be as simple — and as difficult — as creating replacement systems that work, clarifying who makes decisions in each person’s absence, not rewarding permanent availability, and genuinely respecting holiday periods.

And what happens when we return?

If we return to exactly the same level of demands, the same lack of boundaries and the same rhythm that left us exhausted before the holidays, we cannot expect two weeks of rest to structurally transform what happens during the rest of the year. And this is where, for me, holidays can become particularly interesting. They can function as a small “observation laboratory”.

Instead of asking only “Did I rest?”, we can ask ourselves: “What happened during these days that gave me energy back?”

Perhaps we slept more and did not fill our time with so many tasks. Perhaps we walked more or exercised more. Perhaps we disconnected a little from the digital world. Perhaps we spent more time with people we care about or spent more time outdoors.

This exercise of observation and questioning is important because what we miss when we return may indicate what is absent from our everyday lives and what could potentially be integrated.

Research on micro-breaks, for example, suggests that small interruptions throughout the working day may help to reduce fatigue and increase the sense of energy and vigour. They are not a magic formula for improving performance, but they may help us manage effort and recovery throughout the day. We can also preserve moments without stimulation between meetings, step away from the screen for a few minutes, walk, create a transition between the end of work and arriving home, or simply resist the impulse to fill every available interval.

And, once again, part of this work has to happen within organisational culture.

An employee may decide not to reply to emails after 6 p.m. But it will be much easier to do so if their leader also respects that boundary. They may try to take a break between tasks. But it will be difficult if the culture interprets every unfilled minute as a lack of commitment. They may return from holiday intending to protect their energy better. But that intention will have little room to exist if, on the first day, they find an agenda with no margin and an expectation that they will immediately catch up on fifteen days’ worth of accumulated work.

Perhaps, then, returning from holiday is also an opportunity for leaders to ask a few questions:

• Can the people on my team really be on holiday when they are on holiday?
• What example do I set regarding availability and rest?
• Does the way we organise work allow for some recovery throughout the year — or do we depend on holidays to repair months of accumulated strain?

I reinforce what I so often observe and what guides my work with organisations: organisational well-being is not built only through well-being programmes. It is also built into the agenda. Into emails. Into the distribution of work. Into the quality of leadership. Into the freedom to switch off. Into the boundaries that are respected. And into the possibility of being whole, inside and outside the organisation.

We do not need to return from holiday with a personal transformation plan. Perhaps it is enough to return a little more attentive, so that we do not automatically go back to everything from which, after all, we needed a holiday to recover.