楊屹東 古點 田豐

ABSTRACT：The swimming trunks have been dug out of the chest of drawers. The beach shoes （still caked with last years sand） have been retrieved from the shed.

A vacation gives workers a chance to recharge their mental batteries. For Bartleby， this means reading books that do not have titles like “Beyond Performance 2.0” （sadly， a genuine example of a management tome）. Heading to a new location allows employees to clear their thoughts. After all， there is more to life than spreadsheets and sales forecasts. To misquote Timothy Leary， the 1960s hippie guru， a holiday is time to “turn off and drop out”.

That means going away for at least a week. An extended weekend break， favoured by many Americans， risks adding to the stress， as a high proportion of the vacation period is spent travelling to and from the desired destination. No sooner do you arrive than you have to think about packing for the trip back.

Although it does lead to congested traffic and crowded airports， there is something to be said for the European tradition of cramming everyones holidays into August. The predictability of the season means that companies can adjust their plans accordingly. Even those people who are in the office can enjoy an easier pace of life. Most of their customers and suppliers are on a break so there is not much that anyone can do.

For those on vacation， the occasional work-related thought might occur when walking quietly along the beach， or through a wood. Often such ideas will be all the more original for being dreamed up in a moment of detachment. Returning to 3，000 unread emails is also not an appealing prospect， so five minutes deleting the detritus while the rest of the family is in the shower seems like a reasonable compromise. Some favour an “out of office” message but such devices can easily generate automated replies that subsequently clog up the in-box.

The one thing that workers certainly do not need is contact from their managers. Answering the phone to a work-related call should be a complete no-no. Just occasionally， a genuine crisis might require the company to be in contact. In 2007 Bartleby was paddling in the Atlantic next to an analyst from a credit-rating agency receiving frantic messages on his BlackBerry about the collapse of the credit system. But most of the time， executives should really be able to rely on staff who remain in the office.