Not getting away from it all

A new survey shows how the frantic last-minute booking and mad dash for the airport often leaves us too stressed-out to enjoy our well-earned summer break.

Wendy Smith investigates

IT'S an epidemic that starts about now, gathers steam in August and gradually trickles out by the autumn. We need it, we want it and we are gagging for it. Yes, dear worker, once more we are entering into the great British holiday season. This is when the lure of late nights, late mornings, sun and sangria are the order of the day.

Banish the horrors of emails, Post-it notes and delayed public transport - we are off to sunny Spain, Portugal, Cyprus or wherever is hot.

At this stage in the year, many of us are happy just to find somewhere where the sun obliges by staying out for more than 30 minutes a day, the drink is cheap and plentiful, and there isn't a boss in sight for miles.

Bliss. But lo, apparently the holiday, that last vestige of stress- free escapism, is under threat from a new kind of syndrome.

According to research from the Post Office Travel Services, the stresses and strains of working right up to the bumper of the working day means that many of us are leaving less that 24 hours to prepare for the trip. With no time to relax and enjoy the build-up to the break, let alone prepare for it, almost half of holiday makers surveyed claimed to suffer from "windup, wind-down syndrome".

In short, they are so stressed out by the preparations for the getaway and takeoff, that they can't unwind and have a good time when they land.

Apparently 20- to 45-year-old women are the most affected by this syndrome - they're the ones who wait until they're really desparate for a holiday before booking it at the last minute and waiting until the day before to prepare and pack.

Getting to the airport or departure point is the second most stressful factor in organising a holiday: just under a third cite this as a cause of holiday stress.

London-based PA to the chief executive of the Media Centre, Dina Hashen, knows all about getting to airports - or not, in her case.

"The last trip I made was to Venice when I managed to miss the flight and had to sleep in the airport," she recalls with a wince.

"The trouble was that I got it into my head that the London to Stansted trip could be done in 20 minutes. I was very wrong."

Like many people in a senior PA position which requires a high level of working efficiency, this admirable quality does not necessarily spill over into Hashen's private life. "Holiday planning is always last minute. I think about it a lot, book only two weeks ahead and pack the night before or even the morning of my departure," she says.

Many PAs have the added stress of taking on the preparations for the boss's holiday as well as their own. Sue Hyett, who is PA to the managing director of Virgin Mobile, takes her holiday at the same time as her boss, Tom Alexander. "My big stress point is worrying about getting everything done for him so that he has everything he needs, as well as arranging for the cover while I'm away." Packing, by her own admission, is a "strictly non-iron and throw-too-much-in- a-bag exercise" carried out the night before. "I buy all my cosmetics at the airport," she says. "Doesn't everybody?"

Deciding what to wear and making sure clothes actually fit is another major worry for 30 per cent of the people surveyed by the Post Office Travel Services.

So just how do you avoid the sartorial nightmare of packing last year's size 10 tops for your now size 12 body, along with shorts that are too big and the wrong-sized jumper?

Catherine Fenwick, personal shopping manager for London department store Dickens and Jones, has seen it all before, as people rush to her for advice just hours before takeoff. "People just take far too much," she says.

"When are they going to wear all that stuff?"

Fenwick's tips for that perfect holiday pack are straightforward.

"Just work round seven easy pieces that will see you through."

She advises women to pack a blouse or shirt, dress, skirt or trousers, a leather piece, one extra-chunky sweater, a tailored jacket and an outerwear piece. As for that holiday underwear: "Flesh- coloured is a must," she adds firmly. "It is the only colour to wear under your whites."

Of course, in a perfect, non-stressful scenario, the answer would be to take time off work to prepare. Consumer psychologist Donna Dawson says: "Holidays are an important part of the working calendar and it is essential that people use this time to relax and unwind. Unfortunately, in today's hectic society, people aren't taking the time to plan holidays properly." The result, says Dawson, is that "instead of being stress busters, holidays are creating a stress inventory of their own."

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