32 AMERICANWAY
FEBRUARY 1 2008
P R E P A R E F O R R E E N T R Y
it doesn’t leave Tergesen and her husband
much time for a couple’s holiday. Nor does
itmeanwork stops while they’re gone. She
laments, “My husband’s good in that when
hegoes away, hedoesn’t let thenervousness
from work bother him. He just knows 10
percent of his vacation time is going to be
spent on work. He never gets a full break,
andheaccepts that.”
Normally, Tergesen’s annual summer
getaway with her boys to her sister’s cabin
in the SierraNevada leaves her feeling “re-
ally vegged out” and “just very relaxed,”
but during last year’s outing, the crunch
of deadlines got the better of her. “After a
week, there was a total panic because I
wasn’tmeetingmydeadlines.When I came
back, I just sat and stared at the computer.
And e-mail
[
had
]
made it worse. You can
check e-mail all day and think you’re ac-
complishing something, but really you’re
professionals — especially those in high-
stress jobs likeB’s— that aweekaway from
theworkplacewon’t kill them is easier said
thandone.
“The reality of
[
certain
]
high-paying jobs
is that they kind of own you,” says Anne
Tergesen, a 43-year-old mother of three
who works inManhattan as a personal fi-
nancewriter for
BusinessWeek
. “Mynormal
life isn’t sobad; it’s just relentless.”Tomaxi-
mize her off time with her three boys (who
arenine, seven, andfiveyearsold),Tergesen
and her husband, an attorney who “always
has hisBlackBerrywithhim,” take separate
vacationsthroughouttheyear.“Weeachonly
getasetamountof timeoff,” shesays. “Sohe
takes them camping for aweek, I take them
hiking inCalifornia for aweek, and thenwe
allmeet up inMaine for aweek.”
Though the arrangement allows theboys
tohave threeweeksoutof thecityeachyear,
tion resentment. “I was regretting that I
didn’t get the work done before I left. And
it’s like, practice what you preach, because
oneof the thingswe talkabout
[
in the semi-
nar
]
is togetdonewhatyouneed togetdone
before you go away— but I didn’t do that.
So I ended up needing to take care of my
responsibilitieswhile Iwas onvacationand
foolishly checkingmy e-mail everyday.”
Inotherwords, ifyoureallywant toknow
what’s mucking up the modern American
holiday, you don’t have to look too far. It’s
that nasty four-letter word you blaspheme
with everySunday:
work
.
“In the last few years, generationsX and
Y just can’t seem to disconnect, with all
the e-mail, IM, and text messaging,” says
John Putzier, a Pennsylvania-based orga-
nizational psychologist who agrees with
Flahertyabout theneed tounplug from the
workplace. “My wife and I are baby boom-
ers, so we have no problem
[
unplugging
]
,
but it’s just getting worse for the younger
generation. And a lot of it is self-inflicted.
Theworldwon’t end if youdon’t read your
e-mail for aweek.” But convincingmodern
It’s not amatter of where you go on vacation, be it Bali
or thebackyard, but rather howmuchyouprepare for the
postvacation thatwill keepyourmood incheck.
She was an Italian supermodel.
He knew he would have just
one chance to impress her.
He was a hardworking farm boy.
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