It is common that returning to routine after a vacation requires an adjustment period. However, companies are increasingly seeing a new scenario: a growing number of professionals return to work feeling exhausted, demotivated, or anxious, even after a weekend or just a few days of rest.
This phenomenon, known as ‘Work Blues’, has stopped being associated solely with the end of summer vacations to become a recurring experience that reflects a deeper problem. For Hays, the real challenge isn’t about enabling disconnection during breaks, but about building sustainable work environments that foster wellbeing year-round.
“The Work Blues remind us that wellbeing is not built during vacations, but day-to-day. The employee experience depends on many factors: leadership, workload, autonomy, or flexibility. When these elements fail, a few days of rest hardly compensate for the accumulated wear,” says Fernando Calvo, Director of People & Culture for Southern and Western Europe at Hays.
From a more psychological standpoint, the origin of this phenomenon lies not in returning to work per se, but in the contrast between a rest period and an environment that returns to demanding a high level of effort.
Isabel Aranda, PhD in Psychology and expert in Work Psychology, explains that the problem appears when vacations are not enough to recover the psychological resources that were already exhausted before the break. “Returning to work usually does not generate distress simply for returning itself, but because a period in which we had autonomy, rest, and a sense of control over our time disappears. When we return to an environment with high demands, constant interruptions, or scarce resources to meet them, our mind interprets that change as an increase in the effort it will have to exert.”
The specialist explains that, from the Job Demands-Resources model, when a person arrives at vacation with a high level of wear and tear, a few days of rest do not always fully restore their psychological resources. In fact, a study published in 2025 concluded that the energy with which a professional returns to work depends largely on the wear accumulated before the vacation, their recovery needs, and the support they perceive from the organization.
Although experiencing some resistance during the first hours or days after returning is normal, the problem appears when these feelings recur systematically. Among the main warning signs of potential burnout are persistent fatigue that does not improve with rest, apathy, irritability, difficulty concentrating, declining performance, or frequent thoughts of leaving the job.
A workplace culture that prevents burnout
For Hays, this shift requires organizations to rethink their talent management strategy. In a market where attracting and keeping professionals is increasingly challenging, wellbeing has become a strategic factor. In fact, 35% of companies acknowledge that high workload or burnout are among the main obstacles to retaining talent, and up to 69% of professionals in Spain plan to change jobs in 2026, according to Hays’ Market Guide.
According to Calvo, “for a long time we have thought wellbeing depended on offering more measures or more benefits, but the reality is it starts with something much more everyday: how work is organized, how teams are led, and how people feel each day. That’s where companies can make a difference.”
In this sense, organizations have the opportunity to address this challenge from a preventive perspective. Beyond encouraging disconnection during vacations, the real change lies in building environments where wellbeing is part of daily life. To that end, it is key to promote close leadership, foster sustainable workloads, encourage flexibility, and guarantee real recovery spaces, contributing to reducing emotional wear and reinforcing team commitment.
Hyperconnectivity also makes real detachment harder
The evolution of the job market has also transformed how professionals rest. 41% say they find it difficult to disconnect from work due to a culture of urgency, while 23% identify messages received outside work hours as one of the main obstacles to real disconnection, according to Hays data.
Hyperconnectivity, the pressure for results, the uncertainty from transformation processes, or the blurring of boundaries between work and personal life hinder full recovery. “Today it is much harder to disconnect because work travels in our pocket. Even if we don’t respond to emails, many people keep anticipating problems, thinking about meetings, or checking notifications. That’s why we talk less about disconnecting and more about recovering physical, cognitive, and emotional resources,” explains Isabel Aranda.
On top of that, returning to work with a pace marked by increasingly fragmented schedules, constant meetings, multitasking, continual priority changes, and near-constant availability leads many professionals to end the day without truly disconnecting. From the psychology of work, recovery depends not only on rest but also on achieving true mental detachment.
“Vacations relieve fatigue, but they don’t solve a work environment that chronically drains people. While there is no magic formula to entirely prevent burnout, one thing is clear: when people work in an environment where they feel heard, have autonomy and realistic expectations, it’s much easier to sustain motivation and commitment over time,” Calvo remarks.
