Just bottle up that watercooler tension

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In theory, there were four working days between Christmas Eve and now, but if half the people I know are typical, it's only today that the holidays actually end. We seem to have adopted - apart from the retail sector, where it was business as usual from Boxing Day - a French approach to any vacation, which is to take a few days off between the actual holiday and the next convenient Monday. So, it's back to the coalface only today, where an eternity seems to have passed since the bubbly expectation of Christmas Eve. Here, the Christmas cards are looking a bit wistful, though not half as sad as the desks where people have taken down their decorations.

And back in the office, the dilemma arises: how long do you intend to carry on wishing everyone a Happy New Year? I'm going to do it for another day or two, after which it starts to feel a bit silly. But then I'm sturdily carrying on with the principle that Christmas lasts for an entire 12 days, so as far as I'm concerned the season only finishes tomorrow with a convivial dinner party to mark what used to be called the Feast of Fools. (Purists will be having it tonight, like in Shakespeare's time.) But by Wednesday, there'll be no getting away from it: the fun is over.

The thing about this little break, like the Easter one, is that we all take it at pretty well the same time, unlike the summer holidays when we each drift back separately from vacation. So we've all got a common feeling of disgruntlement at having to get up significantly earlier than this time last week, a shared sense of mild disorientation from our environment.

Though personally I was entirely restored to my old self by finding out about the increase in bus fare prices that took place while I was away. Nothing like bad and more expensive public transport to take away the gloss of a holiday, don't you find?

Today, in fact, is meant to be the most stressful day of the year, according to a survey of 2,000 adults, commissioned by the RNLI. It's something about Christmas being over, the weather bad, the credit card bills coming in and the body being all sluggish. And the advice of psychiatrists? One, Judi James, a body language expert, advises releasing tension by shouting at people. I think not. Seasonal sad-syndrome is a passing phase; your colleagues are, if not for life, at least, not just for Christmas. Bottle it up.