Back to work.

"Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people. If I'm not there, I go to work".

Sometime this month, if not already, you have to go back to work. The festivities are a hazy memory, the egg nog has added inches to your waist, the sunburn is but flaking skin and worst of all, you didn't spend those couple of hours cleaning out your email. You've returned the ab exerciser from Aunt May, you've exchanged those skinny jeans for one size up and you've already broken two of your New Year's resolutions.

So why not go back to work? Things are more black and white at work, it's results driven and not emotional warfare over who gets the last piece of Gran's fruit cake and most importantly you need to pay off the credit card.

There are advantages to going back to the salt mines, you are no longer the boss having to make all the household decisions, you get back to having adult conversations, your keyboard won't be filled with Christmas cake by angry bird playing juveniles, no one will ask for lunch money and your best friend wont be a bottle of Chardonnay at 10pm when you finally get time to yourself.

With so many reasons to go back to work, it will quickly dawn on you, holidays are the firm's way of showing you how much you miss it, the meetings, the late night conference calls, the guy in procurement always on about the toilet rolls, wrestling with the printer and the Sunday night stress attack when you realise how little you achieved over the weekend.

Still it occurs to you, some of the household rules would make for a more gratifying work environment. Surely sending an unruly, uncooperative co-worker to his room, brings with it a satisfaction not normally encountered in the office. The afternoon nap, chips and trifle for lunch, beers on the balcony, working in your tracky pants, not to mention having the last say while not wearing underpants all day, are ways to make the lines blur to create a homely feel at work.

What better way to engender staff satisfaction than making everyone sit together at the lunch table, laugh over the most inappropriate Christmas present, help clean up and spend time with people who may not be your family but who are part of your work family. Both families deserve your best.

So instead of heading out with anxieties about the email avalanche awaiting, worrying whether the boss had a good break or if the printer guy finally fixed that monster, bring some left over fruit cake, show the Christmas pictures to all and sundry, tell the funniest Uncle Kevin story and generally delight those around you.

The decision between fighting with the printer guy or bringing your best from home is yours, not your boss or your manager. So bring your smile and all those lessons learnt at the beach, at the dinner table, at the mall.

You could be surprised how much fun work can be?