As I walked to work today, on a particularly chilly Monday morning, a sinking feeling hit me. Summer is actually over… and all before it even really got started. The two-week jaunts to sunnier climes; the long, warm, (if rare) balmy evenings; the jugs of Pimms – they are all finished for another year and autumn is officially upon us.

Now I don’t know about you, but that thought is actually quite depressing – all those cold, dark days and nights ahead of us as the UK goes into hibernation mode for another winter. And I have even heard talk of Christmas already, with the shops already gearing up for another festive season.

For many of us, returning to work after the summer holidays can leave a lot of us feeling deflated and bring on a serious case of the blues, which of course, can have repercussions on our productivity and motivation at work. So should employers be thinking of ways in which they can help their employees to overcome these feelings, to ensure a happy and inspired workforce that continues throughout the year?

Perhaps HR can step up their communication on workplace counselling, and access to specialist support services. It is also worth thinking about practical advice that you could offer to employees, to help them stay stress-free both in and outside work.

Employee assistance programme provider CiC has produced a factsheet to help people beat post-holiday stress, which offers various tips for employees suffering from personal, work or financial worries, including:

• Make a list of things that you need to catch up on, which will allow you to get through everything in bite-sized pieces.
• Ease yourself back into routines and day-to-day life. Don’t try and do everything at once.
• Plan fun activities to do and set aside time to spend with friends and family. Just because your holiday is over does not mean that you have to stop having fun.
• If you feel that the life you have come back to is predictable and mundane, think about a new hobby or project that can renew the creativity and vitality in your life.

Well, being a typical ‘ever-the-optimist’ Brit when it comes to the weather, I am still holding out hope for a last minute Indian summer. OK, it may be slightly wishful thinking, but you never know. And failing that, I can always keep my fingers crossed for a white Christmas…