Last Saturday, 34-year-old office worker Lee Ik-je woke up around noon and spent the day lazing around.

He’d had a dinner-turned-drinking party the previous day with colleagues and didn’t feel well.

“I gave myself some time to recharge, lolling around the home and preparing for a hectic schedule next week,” he said.

On the other hand, 30-year-old office worker Shin Jee-won met her friends downtown, had lunch and enjoyed shopping for a while, then returned home and went to sleep.

“I prefer mingling on holidays and weekends because I can enjoy lunch, have plenty of fun and still manage to take some rest in the evening. During weekdays, I am always in a hurry because the idea of having to work the next day is a big stress,” she said.

According to a recent survey by the online recruiter Incruit of 451 office workers, men prefer sleeping at home while women enjoy outdoor activities on holidays.

In sharp contrast, 36.1 percent of men preferred “binge sleeping” to make up for fatigue from work. Meeting friends, enjoying their hobbies and exercise followed. Among women, “getting together with friends” topped the chart with 48.4 percent, followed by enjoying cultural experiences such as concerts and exhibitions, doing house chores and others.

“I think it is the difference in concept of holiday and rest between the two genders,” Kim Mi-yeon, a section chief at a mid-sized company, said based on her experience.

“Women use holidays for doing something they have always wanted to do but couldn’t spare time for, while men tend to regard holidays as a recharging period for working days,” she said. “More­over, women find chatting quite comforting and rewarding while men think it is self-consuming. They prefer lying down on the couch and enjoying TV.”

Regardless of sex, all workers were reluctant to go to work on Mondays. About 18.3 percent said they become very depressed and another 38.6 percent were somewhat so on Sunday evenings because they had to work the next day.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)