I’ve made this post before and I find myself making it again. Always after a good vacation, I seem to suffer from what I call a Post-Vacation-Syndrome (read: sickness). It starts off psychological that could transcend to physical, it depends how far I let my mind influence my body.

It starts off on the day I depart from my vacation hotspot. I feel detachment from a place of relaxation and fun by being sucked into reality, the metro, work. Then it builds up when I’m already in the metro recognizing the normal things I tried to escape from in the first place. Responsibilities. Deadlines. Traffic. I know that vacation’s over and it’s time to face the music, but then psychologically I don’t want to. That’s when the transition weighs down on me. It’s always in that phase that the mind conjures all the draining and negative emotions of transitioning to something unpleasant like work.

This especially happens to me when I have mini vacations instead of long ones. In quick vacations of three days or over the weekend, one has not fully saturated the feeling of relaxation just yet and on the time I am trying to savor the moment, I find myself suddenly packing for home. When instead of having long vacations, I would eventually call the shots of when to end it and go back to reality as soon as my body and mind would start to crave for challenges that work brings. My mind would reach a certain saturation point that vacation was fun, but could be boring when hit to a maximum number of days. That’s why I prefer long vacations instead of short ones.

Also, transitioning form work to vacation is quite easy. It occurs in one snap and is often automatic. It happens a day before the actual vacation, thats why people coin the term “vacation mode.” I find myself still working, but mind is actually somewhere far off, to the place I’ll be vacationing the day after. The mind goes way ahead to a place of serenity, fun and relaxation. Who needs a lengthy and painful transition in that? But when if it’s the other way around, from happiness to reality in three short days, it’s awful. Especially in short vacations that are immediately embraced, it’s often that no one is almost ready to go back.

The Post Vacation Syndrome kicks in when you are transitioning from vacation to work. There are certain variables that this syndrome feeds on. The level of happiness you had in your recent vacation and the level of crap you will face in work. If work is not so bad and you’re one of those who tremendously love it, going back isn’t that hard. But if work is a total demon in itself that puts you in an unreasonable and insurmountable stress, then expect PVS to hit you hard. You’ll start to feel pessimistic with a tinge of sadness that can go on to depression. You would entertain philosophical questions that could push you to realize that you need to find a new job or you simply need to quit your job. You’ll feel that your world is a mess and you need to have a fresh start. You begin to be dramatic. Then it depends on how psychologically down you become, you feel lazy, sickly and gloomy until the body really responds in the form of sickness, fever, rashes and other effects brought by psychological stress. That’s PVS for you.

I had a major attack before. I got home, the weather was a bit chilly, I was at a low point in my career. I didn’t want to back to work. I had fun in my vacation and I made myself believe that I could change my life. I became irritable, lazy and depressed until I got rashes and developed a fever. I ended up filing for sick leave the next day. Sometimes the weight issue also adds up. When you go on vacation, you eat a lot, you pamper yourself. When reality hits, you gained weight and that contributes to overall PVS.

I know this is not scientific, but i’ve encountered this painful transition so many times that I had to give it a name. I have to stare at it in the face and realize what it’s doing to me so I could always overcome it. For others it would take hours to transition. For most of us it would take days, but no one dies from it, not that I know of. People might invoke drastic change, but it’s always for the better. Everyone just has to get through this PVS and get back to life a little bit stronger. Since it’s started in the mind, do not let it overcome you. Rein the mind to work for you to get on that car and drive to work.

I know PVS so well that it’s a psychological game more than anything. I’ve learned to overcome it by changing the settings by stepping inside the office as soon as possible. I need the scenes to change to disorient the mind. I will talk to people I see almost everyday and get back on the saddle, catch up and occupy the mind with work. As soon as I’ve done my part to cope, vacation will transform to a distant memory. And as days trickle down, I wouldn’t remember I was suffering from PVS in the first place.  Come to think of it, I need to work hard to pay for that next grand vacation anyways.

I have yet to remember and isolate that one time that my flight was NOT delayed for some reason. And unfortunately, I’m having a pretty tough time with this exercise. Delayed flights have become somewhat of a norm. If you flew on time, consider yourself lucky, throw a celebration, but isn’t that what’s supposed to happen in the first place? Airline companies have their own schedules that they would offer to paying customers. Spending so much for an airfare is not a joke and being denied check-in for tardy passengers, at least 45 minutes before boarding time is not a joke either. That’s why passengers take the rules of the airlines seriously to make the flight into a success. Passengers have to exert efforts to be on time at the check in counter. It’s a massive cooperation by primarily following the airline’s rules. However, they break their number one rule, which is simply to be on time.

I cannot anymore graphically tell you how annoying, frustrating and irritating it is to be delayed. It’s not like you could get a refund or anything. It’s not like there are some easier ways to get you to your destination. There’s pretty much nothing we can do but to be at the mercy and wait for that plane to arrive. Luckily, I never fly in tight schedules. If I have an engagement in the afternoon, I fly in the early mornings. If I have a connecting flight to catch, I fly hours before or a day before. I might be veering towards flight paranoia, but I’ve experienced flying and being delayed so much that I’ve always adhered to that plan. I don’t expect and I give myself full allowance so I save myself from heated arguments and violent shows. But I know most people don’t have the luxury of time and they get pissed off. I get pissed off too, but as I’ve said, having been delayed so much enabled me to expect less. There are times that I wanted to scream at the lady and throw fits, but it wouldn’t help. We are at the mercy of the airline companies.

I may not throw a hissy fit like Claudine Barretto and I would still force myself to follow the airlines’ orders to a tee, but I am entitled to write and express how I feel. And I am writing because I am extremely disappointed by the countless delays the airlines subject their paying customers to. I do not work in an airline company nor my knowledge in air traffic is competent, but I have experienced delays countless times and this aspect is something that companies may not resolve due to various unknown reasons that passengers would just have to swallow and bend to.  If you offer services and you are paid for those services, you have to deliver. I believe an industry that works with time and values time well knows their targets. If I have service level agreements to my customers, what more for airline companies? Aside from safety, getting their passengers on time to their destinations belong to the priority but how come they screw at this?

I just got home from a 1 hour flight after 2.5 hours of waiting. I have just witnessed a group of Australian travelers pulling threads just to get other options to reach their 6 pm connecting flight to Sydney. Their supposed flight out from Boracay was 12 PM.  I would never know if they made it. I watched as passengers get into heated arguments with the ground attendants. I have been witness to a man nursing his sick daughter eager to get home to rest. I have felt my stomach grumbling as it skipped its lunch. I have known this scene so well that I sat, kept myself busy and accepted the fact that it’s the way it is. As the hours trickled, I calmly patted myself for not losing my grip. It just so happened I had an interesting book to finish, but I know this is not the way to fly. Airlines have that basic responsibility to get us on time, that’s what we paid for and what we should be getting with minimal exceptions. If they continue to delay the passengers, they should reimburse and give back something otherwise it’s just unfair. They are nothing less than thieves of time and master of manipulation. Apologies sometimes won’t cut it and irate customers lashing at the counter could very well be the norm.