Extraordinary Business

I recently returned from a trip to the Caribbean. After a busy 2006, it was a welcome respite from the work I had been doing. My wife and I took the opportunity to take a 7 day cruise. If you have never done a cruise before, I highly recommend it for a number of different reasons. Besides the great service, you meet many different people from many different cultures. I was fortunate to meet people from Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, Scotland, England, as well as other parts of Europe, Asia, and Central America.

One of the things I noticed about the different cultures was how many people from the US struggled to relax. Now these people may have thought they were relaxing, but I would wonder how relaxed they felt when they returned.

It started with our charter to the cruise ship. We were running a little late and one person became visibly angry and complained to the director responsible for making sure we had all our passengers. We weren't running unreasonably late, nor were we in danger of missing the ship.

Another time involved waiting to exit the ship at one of our ports of call. A couple complained about waiting, the service, the gathering points and a number of other trivial things that were little more than inconvenient to them. Later, someone was complaining to the bartender that she should know how to make a particular drink he received earlier even though he couldn't remember the name of the drink himself.

What I observed from our foreign counterparts was the opposite. They were there to relax, and minor inconveniences didn't seem to bother them compared to the high strung behavior I witnessed from the others. It's no wonder we struggle with increased stress and health issues, burnout from jobs, and our inability to see the positive in many cases. If we need to be taught anything its how to value our free time and separate from work when necessary. I think all too often we are not at our job and we still act like we are. The hurry up and relax approach doesn't seem to be effective since some people appear more stressed after vacation than before. What have you observed on vacation?