This is the weekly Work Life newsletter. If you are interested in more careers-related content, sign up to receive it in your inbox.
 
 

Last week I extended my time off after Labour Day, taking off a full nine days.

 
 

The last time I’d taken that much time was between jobs, when rest is forced on you more than chosen.
 
 

As my time off approached, I was tempted to book a flight – chase some sun, squeeze in a few rounds of golf – until I remembered how many times I’ve returned from a “proper” vacation only to feel like I needed another vacation.

 
 

It turns out that nagging feeling is pretty common. Only 22 per cent of workers say they feel refreshed and ready to work after a long holiday, according to a report from recruitment firm Robert Walters, and 74 per cent report anxiety when they return from paid time off.

 
 

That raised a bigger question for me: is there a right way to vacation so you actually come back feeling well and rested?
 
 
 

A recent meta-analysis in the Journal of Applied Psychology, which pooled 32 studies, offers useful clues. First, vacations do indeed reliably boost well-being across psychological factors (stress, burnout, life satisfaction, happiness) and psychosomatic measures (sleep quality, fatigue, somatic complaints). Second, the benefits last longer than we think. Well-being dips after you’re back, but remains above pre-holiday levels for at least 21 days and can persist up to 43.
 
 

The nuance lives in how you take time off. Here’s what you need to know:

 
 
  • Length: Longer breaks create greater during-holiday gains in well-being but fade faster afterward.
  • Type of break: Vacations that mixed home time with travel produced greater immediate benefits than fully away-from-home holidays, while those who took fully away-from-home vacations saw their well-being gains decline more gradually (after the vacation) compared to those who mixed home and travel.
  • What you do: The strongest gains come from mentally detaching from work, then relaxation. Physical activity delivers the most positive impact, social activities help, passive rest is neutral and learning new skills shows no meaningful effect. Feeling in control of one’s time also matters.
 
 

So, I skipped the airport and designed my nine days around the evidence: hard boundaries from work, unstructured hours and activities that let my brain power down. The research suggests the lift in well-being should carry a few weeks – long enough to make thoughtful vacation planning worth it.
 
 

Consider this your friendly nudge to plan the rest of your year now and actually take what you’re allotted. Fewer than a third (31 per cent) of Canadian workers used all of their vacation time in 2024, according to ADP.

 
 

Block the days, aim for a mix of home and away, build in movement and real detachment. Your future self will thank you.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

115 per cent
 
 

That’s how much you can improve your chances of landing an interview by tailoring your resume to the specific posting, according to data from job search website Huntr.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Most interview processes still lean on stale behavioUral questions such as “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” But they rarely reveal anything useful about a candidate’s real abilities and can lead to bad hires.

 
 

This Harvard Business Review article suggests that hiring managers should design experiences to uncover how people actually think and work. Want to see if a candidate prepares thoroughly? Share the interview questions ahead of time and observe how they come ready to engage. Curious about technical expertise? Skip the hypothetical and give them a real problem to solve.

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

“Maybe their touchpoint with HR is onboarding or when there’s an issue. Maybe they touch base with them again when they’re being terminated. I think that’s typically how people use or leverage HR within an organization, unfortunately,” says Jennifer Houle, a 20-year human resources veteran.

 
 

In this article, Ms. Houle and other experts share insights on how the best HR departments go beyond ‘hiring and firing’ to relay messages from leadership to staff, be a voice for employees and be a solutions partner for a variety of workplace issues.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Artificial intelligence is transforming work by automating routine tasks and amplifying productivity, allowing small teams – or even individuals – to achieve the output once requiring dozens of employees. According to this article, rather than eliminating human roles, this shift will create leaner companies, new entrepreneurial opportunities and a surge of innovative projects, with humans focusing on oversight, direction and uniquely human tasks.