Workers are supposed to come back from vacation refreshed and remotivated. But do they?

Vacations just don’t hit like they used to.

Research suggests that workers should return from paid time-off refreshed and ready to grind, but that may no longer be the case: 42% of the 1,000 US employees surveyed by MyBioSource earlier this year said they dreaded returning to work after time off, and 41% reported experiencing post-PTO burnout. While this may seem like a new flavor of employee engagement issues plaguing companies, experts say it’s likely related to some challenges that HR professionals are all too familiar with.

What’s driving post-PTO burnout? Employees may not be recharged upon returning from vacation because the muddled distinction between professional and personal life has made it more difficult to stay offline during non-work hours. A 2022 Qualtrics survey of more than 1,000 full-time US workers found that 49% spend an hour or more per day on PTO focused on work-related tasks. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 27% said they didn’t feel rejuvenated after vacation.

“I think remote work has totally blurred the lines between what’s work and what’s home life or personal time,” Carly Holm, CEO of consulting firm Humani HR, told HR Brew. “And it goes both ways. We hear stories of people doing work on the golf course because they can respond to emails and Slack, but then the same thing happens where the expectation is: ‘Well, I know your email’s on your phone, so just respond to it, even though you’re on vacation.’”

Worth noting, perhaps, is that people are often more vocal about their dislikes. Social media has emboldened some people to publicly complain about anything in their lives causing them grief—including their jobs. If someone is unhappy about returning to work after vacation, they have a place to express it, and sites like X and Glassdoor are popular platforms for complaints.

“I wonder if we ever really did come back recharged, or if it was just considered the more appropriate thing to say when someone at work would ask you, ‘How was your vacation?’ and you’re supposed to say, ‘Oh, it was great, but now I’m ready to go and so excited for even more work,’” Maria Amato, a senior client partner who oversees employer value proposition and total rewards optimization at management consultancy Korn Ferry, told HR Brew. “Perhaps there’s a little bit of social desirability.”

Set a new tone. HR leaders can help normalize unplugging from work while on vacation by working with managers and company leaders to set a cultural tone that values time off. This might involve encouraging managers to avoid emailing their teams while out of the office, as doing so might have workers believe that they have to monitor their inbox when they are on PTO, Amato said. While it’s not always possible for supervisors and executives to completely check out from work—particularly if business emergencies require their attention—HR leaders should caution them to think twice about how logging on will resonate with employees.

“For HR leaders, it’s just reminding people that it’s okay to take recovery time,” Benjamin Granger, Qualtrics’ chief workplace psychologist, told HR Brew. “And making sure that the spotlight isn’t just on the frontline, but is on leaders, coaching them on…if you do need to be connected, be very careful about how visible that is to the rest of the workforce, so that you’re not inadvertently signaling something that’s going to encourage people to not recover.”

When workers return to work, HR can help ensure they do so refreshed by encouraging them to block off time—or decline meetings—on their first day or two so they can catch up.

“Whether it’s a one-week vacation, or multiple months away, I would say to the employee, as well as the employer, on the first day back, if you can ease back into it so that you’re not hit with six back-to-back meetings Monday morning, you’re gonna get a better worker, and then you’re gonna get better output because of that,” Holm said.