I read in Forbes that 47% of working Americans won’t take a summer vacation this year “because it’s too stressful to plan a getaway.” “5 Productivity Hacks To Avoid The Summer Slump And Stay On Track,” by Bryan Robinson, Ph.D. (found at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2024/07/02/5-productivity-hacks-to-avoid-thesummer-slump-and-stay-on-track/ ). While I no longer count myself among this group of Americans, I agree with them that planning a getaway can be a stressful activity.
Making getaway plans is something I can speak to from long personal experience, having planned numerous getaways during my life. For example, we only recently returned from a busy but thoroughly pleasant summer weekend in Michigan City, in fact, the first summer getaway of the season. Among our activities while there: Deb’s small wedding in the country, framed against the backdrop of a giant, ageless Burr Oak; a return visit to a large family-owned orchard to restock a few private label favorites in bottles and jars; picking up the two 5-pound boxes containing the season’s first sweet blueberries that we pre-ordered, and beating the crowds by paying for them with exact change, thereby only narrowly avoiding hordes of impatient kids and entire extended families crowded into a long line under the baking sun, multiple berry buckets in hand as they wait for the only cashier working on this day to weigh and bag the precious fruit. Meanwhile, by the time the line starts to shrink, we’re already headed back to the city in air condition comfort, where we are planning to help Robyn’s Auntie Gail celebrate her 87th birthday at a neighborhood beer garden.
This weekend it is off to Door County. Cool Lake Michigan beckons! Soft sands, easy trails, lingonberries, and soft ice cream from a shop that is adjacent to the small harbor where lapping waves gently pile up and break. If this itinerary sounds simple, remember, it’s the product of careful planning. I can tell you that scoring a room on our resort’s ground floor with a king-size bed and a large whirlpool bathtub did not occur by magic!
Later this month, it’s Angie’s annual out-of-town birthday party. Each year Robyn’s daughter-in-law throws an elaborate, catered bash in her honor, featuring an open bar. Angie also pops for everybody’s overnight stay at a lakeside boutique hotel, and then picks up the breakfast tab, to boot. Come to think of it, since there is nothing for us to plan, I am expecting a brief and stress-free stay.
However, this is not to say that Angie’s extensive getaway planning might not prove stressful for her. One year, for example, her caterer fouled up the dessert assortment, upsetting guests like me, who prefer cupcakes with vanilla frosting!
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I have other getaway plans in store, including, quite naturally, my annual 2-month winter hiatus in Tucson, Arizona with Lola the pup. Robyn and I l have lately been discussing at least one more getaway before year’s end as well as a major excursion, yet to be determined, for next year, while we’re both young and healthy enough to enjoy one.
Like most things, I don’t take such matters for granted, and this getaway planning business remains fraught. Even so, it still came as news to me that nearly one-half of the American workforce would elect to stay home this summer because it is simply too hard for them to make plans to get away from their daily grind. In contrast to us, Europeans close during the hottest summer months. They won’t allow the stress of planning a getaway to interfere with the earnest business of getting away. We could stand to borrow a page from our European cousins.
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Finally, the same Forbes article I referenced at the start of today’s blog offers two additional corollary statistics of particular interest to workers and would-be travelers alike: (1) around 36% of U.S. workers admit to being less productive during the summer months; (2) 34% admit to slacking off while their boss goes off on his or her summer vacation.
The expected corresponding decline in worker productivity explains, I suppose, how someone manages to screw up a representative dessert assortment by omitting vanilla frosted cupcakes! Careful getaway planners should take note. To paraphrase Karl Malden, longtime spokesman for American Express, don’t leave home without an assortment.
