And that’s really the case for most. The Country Music Capital has bid farewell to the summer vacation in more ways than one.

After all, the calendar actually marks a five-week hiatus or so in the life of everyday Tamworth.

We seem to shut up shop at Christmas – and then when the country music festival tunes in to our consciousness and our lifestyles we tend to tune out of work stuff.

If we’re on deck, it’s in a mode where we’re sharing the landscape with visitors and summer vacationers.

And while plenty of bosses and employer groups wanted to wag their fingers about taking sickies on Monday, it was in many cases more a matter of bosses clearing the decks to take advantage of what was likely to be a very slow trading day.

The figures aren’t in, but for many offices and shops there was a skeleton staff on deck on Monday as retailers took the opportunity to give employees a day off on a day when they weren’t really needed.

The run-up to the day sandwiched between the last day of the festival and the Australia Day holiday saw plenty of warnings and messages about social media stupidity that could get you in hot water for some hot air.

There were stories quoting the 180,000 figure of expected sickies, including a survey that said the most common day for people to call in sick was the day after Australia Day.

Debate over whether or not calling in sick was “theft” and reminiscing about sick days gone wrong shared air time on talkback radio, while news bulletins warned it would be “un-Australian” to skip work in times of high unemployment, at a potential $62 million cost to the national economy. 

Regional workers were warned too, and told beforehand they should be upfront with the boss and seek the day off, rather than risk getting found out.

For Tamworth especially, this week really does mark the start of the new work year in earnest.

While some of us have been at work throughout, it’s been a bit of a part-time schedule – because if we also have young families, we’ve had kids at home to juggle too.

Today and tomorrow mark the return to the real world for so many.