Thursday, August 25, 2005
Vacations Are A Necessity, Not A Luxury
Client retention, quality customer service and the profits that flow from these are the reasons you want your people to take a vacation. Sharp people in tip-top condition do good work. Burned-out people don’t. They’re not pleasant to work with and they make mistakes. Plus, burned-out hulks are poor assets. After all, you’ve invested a lot of training, time and energy in them. Why let that investment and all that flows from it, go down the drain because you can’t get your head on straight and figure out how to manage the company well enough to see to it that everyone has at least 7 days off in a row, once a year?
Slap! Is it because you don’t know the rejuvenating effect of 7 days off in a row? Or, perhaps, slap!, despite all the evidence to the contrary, you believe you can take it with you? Or maybe you find solace in the heroic myth of the iron, macho man or woman who feels no pain and gladly sacrifices self and family for the good of the team. Or, and this is perhaps the hardest to consider, you don’t think of people in the firm as assets, but rather as easily replaceable hands, commodities, in a plentiful market. And one last slap, in this age of Outlook and super high-powered scheduling software, is it that you can’t figure out how to manage so that everyone MUST have a full week off?
Whew, that was rough, but if you’ve read this far, maybe now you’re willing to let go of whatever reasons you’ve been using for not making people, including yourself, take a week of vacation. Let by-gones be by-gones. It’s not too late. Start making it happen, now. You won’t lose face, credibility or business. In fact, you’ll actually gain in those areas. So, go for it! You can do it and it’s worth doing. Have a great vacation!
Slap! Is it because you don’t know the rejuvenating effect of 7 days off in a row? Or, perhaps, slap!, despite all the evidence to the contrary, you believe you can take it with you? Or maybe you find solace in the heroic myth of the iron, macho man or woman who feels no pain and gladly sacrifices self and family for the good of the team. Or, and this is perhaps the hardest to consider, you don’t think of people in the firm as assets, but rather as easily replaceable hands, commodities, in a plentiful market. And one last slap, in this age of Outlook and super high-powered scheduling software, is it that you can’t figure out how to manage so that everyone MUST have a full week off?
Whew, that was rough, but if you’ve read this far, maybe now you’re willing to let go of whatever reasons you’ve been using for not making people, including yourself, take a week of vacation. Let by-gones be by-gones. It’s not too late. Start making it happen, now. You won’t lose face, credibility or business. In fact, you’ll actually gain in those areas. So, go for it! You can do it and it’s worth doing. Have a great vacation!
