Holidays are often a great time to reflect on where you are in your career, and whether you should be looking at new opportunities.

It's a circuit breaker, which halts the inertia and habits of your career and lets you look objectively at what you enjoy, what you cope with and what holds you back.

Start work again and you'll quickly lose sight of that objectivity.

It's much like when I'd take a two week holiday and not listen to Chris Moyles on BBCR1 during my commute - I'd come back and hate his sarcastic style, before finding it acceptable again after a couple of weeks. Other channels are available.

More than anything that objectivity you find during a break is something you should aim to find at all times, so that when you are ready to move, it's for the right reasons instead of feeling the burning need to get away to any old job.

And having the objectivity to balance your needs and aspirations.

What do you need and want from your career?
What are the immovable obstacles in life?
What does your family need?
Is convenience more important than ambition?
And so on.

Indeed this is one of the reasons that so many people have resigned following pandemic lockdowns, Great Resignation or otherwise.

What better time to find that objectivity than when you've broken the habit of normal working?

A little different of course if you are out of work, but these questions might still be asked, even if you answer a different question by going for jobs that simply pay the bills.

And the opposite holds true as an opportunity for employers.

If your people are key to the success of your business, or even if they are just hard to replace, now is the time to be talking more closely with them. See how you can best enable them in a way that is consistent with how the rest of your staff are treated.

Help them meet their needs and wants, to cater to your own.

You'll lose fewer people and you'll find it easier to attract those top hires that are taking the Christmas break as an opportunity to reflect on their needs and aspirations.

It's all connected.