After the Holidays: Reentering Real Life Without Overloading Yourself

The rise of remote and flexible work during and after the COVID-19 pandemic transformed the modern workplace, giving employees unprecedented control over schedules, commuting, and work-life balance. Yet as organizations push for a return to the office, many are discovering new challenges—challenges that affect both personal lives and business performance. For example, a 2024 poll by Eagle Hill Consulting found that 50 percent of U.S. workers prefer employers who offer remote or hybrid work flexibility (Eagle Hill Consulting, 2024). This widespread demand for flexible work reflects a changing workforce mindset. However, some employers are responding with full-time office mandates, which can carry hidden costs for both employees and organizations.

You wake up, groggy and overwhelmed. Your inbox is already flooded, deadlines loom, and the day hasn’t even started. Still, you feel the pressure to keep pushing. Sound familiar?

As vacations end and routines return, many of us feel an emotional weight we can't quite explain. Here’s why that stress shows up and how to soften the transition back to structure.

Recovery after a medical emergency often looks different from what people expect. The visible milestones, the surgeries, the hospital stays, the return to work are just part of the story. What happens next, when the noise fades and the support disappears, is quieter and less understood. This is the part of healing that no one talks about, but it shapes everything that comes after.

The sterile smell of the hospital room still lingers in my mind as I think back to early May, when I underwent emergency surgery. Just one week after returning home, balancing work and caring for my child, a sudden complication forced me back into the hospital for another procedure. As I lay there, the constant beeping of machines was accompanied by the distant wailing and quiet sobbing of other patients and their families, people not feeling well, or crying after receiving bad news in the ER. Overwhelmed and frustrated, I realized that getting back to normal wasn’t going to be easy or quick.