Walt Hampton, J.D.

Creating the Work & Life You LOVE

Jumbo Shrimp
May 15, 2014

I unintentionally stirred a shit-storm last week with my newsletter.

I recommended that everyone take a vacation this summer; that vacations are essential to our well-being.

This, apparently, is controversial.

Taking vacations, so the criticism went, suggests that you are not a team player. It might even mean that you’re weak. If your boss tells you not to take them, then you can’t.

I get it. I worked in that culture. I coach a lot of folks who work in that culture.

It’s not a sustainable culture.

We are not machines. We cannot be ‘on’ 24/7/365. It’s just not possible.

The studies are clear and the science backs it up: In cultures that promote a ‘machine’ model, stress is high, turnover is high, the error rate is high (this, of course, finally gets the attention of the professional firms I work with), employee engagement is low, productivity suffers, and job satisfaction is in the toilet.

The testosterone laden, muscle-drive, brute force thing can get us through emergencies and the rare episodic project that has a real (not imagined or manipulated) deadline. All of us have to endure these episodes from time to time. But these are exceptions in a culture of wellness, in a corporate culture that truly values its people. And they exist! They really do! I had the great privilege of doing a series of wellness workshops for a number of accounting firm in the middle of tax season! Talk about evolved cultures!

In order to have work and lives we love, we need to rest and recover. We need vacations!

This was a hard-learned lesson for me. When I worked in The Big Firm, I was told at orientation that we needed to bill 2000+ hours a year; and that we got three weeks of vacation… but that no one ever took them. And as an endurance athlete, I believed that the best way to train (and work!) was, in fact, to keep on going.

Of course, societally, this is exactly what we’re taught: That in order to succeed, we need to work longer, harder faster.

Until what? We’re dead? why_less_is_more

But then I discovered, through my mountaineering and as a distance runner, that rest and recovery is actually an integral part of the equation. That we get stronger when we rest and recover. That we can go longer, harder faster… when we have rested and recovered.

That we’re more focused, attentive, engaged and productive when we’ve rested and recovered.

The same is true in our careers.

Last year there were more than 500,000,000 (that’s 5 hundred million) unused paid vacations days left on the table by American workers. That’s screwed up. I took 12 weeks of vacation last year and enjoyed every single one of them… and then was able to bring a focus and vibrancy to our business and the people we serve in a way that would not have been possible without that time away. (If you’re going to leave some days on the table this year, send them over to me… I’ll be happy to use them. But I’d prefer if you’d take them for yourself.)

I got asked at a workshop this past week how you make this happen for yourself in a culture that doesn’t support it (this from a woman whose husband works in the brokerage industry). This is a very tough question with no easy answer… we want our jobs, we need our jobs, we want to be perceived to be ‘on the team.’ It feels horribly risky to break from the pack. (And sometimes it is.) But, at the same time, if we’re truly going to be responsible for ourselves and for those we love… and if we are going to be leaders, regardless of our job title, or position, we have an obligation to advocate for ourselves… and for those around us.

If you are leader or manager reading this piece, I urge you: Deep dive into the research, evaluate your culture and study the impact. The managers and leaders who see their people late at night or on a Saturday morning and take them aside to coach them on being better stewards of their time: These are the companies that will lead; these are the companies that will thrive.

I know it seems paradoxical. But less really is more.

Hopefully it’s one of those paradoxes that maybe, just maybe, we might learn to live with… kinda like jumbo shrimp.

 

 

 

 

 

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