What a year! Meeting cancellations, layoffs, the swine flu…what’s next, locusts? Many of you will likely work straight through this summer, putting off vacations for better times.
Rock lyricist Michael Stipe of R.E.M put it best: “And the train conductor says, we’ve been on this shift too long…take a break driver eight, driver eight take a break. We can reach our destination, but we’re still a ways away.” This is my message to you this summer: Take some time off, or you’ll crash the train next fall.
Consider my friend Eric’s story.
Eric was less than one year into a new career as regional vice president of sales for a Seattle-based office leasing company. The dotcom industry was under fire by Wall Street, and hundreds of startups were running out of cash. His region was one of the hardest hit: Seattle, the Bay Area and Southern California. As layoffs happened at competitors and client companies, Eric was pummeled with Chicken Little announcements from his co-workers. That spring, the mood at work was darker than the weather—and just as depressing.
Even though he’d been a longstanding optimist, Eric couldn’t resist the culture at work, and by late 2001, the scarcity bug made its way into his head. He became fearful for his job and his family’s survival. He questioned his commitment, whether he had enough talent, whether he had enough drive. He even felt guilty for having any fun—attributing “having fun” as the root of the Internet industry’s woes. He hunkered down, grinding on himself to squeeze out more production. He stopped going to the gym every morning, because he felt guilty when he wasn’t working. Leaving at 6 p.m. felt morally wrong, as the ship was presumably sinking—so he stayed late and missed dinner with his wife and two toddlers.
He cancelled his summer vacation and started to work Saturdays. On Sunday, he replaced church and football with e-mail marathons.
His productivity plummeted faster than the stock market. He wasted hours re-reading the same set of bad numbers from a variety of sources. He pored over an endless supply of downward projections for office space.
Sometime during May 2002, Eric hit the wall. First, his wife told him that she was taking the kids and going to her parent’s house for the month of June. Next, Eric received a less-than-perfect annual review from his boss. Even with all of his overtime, he had failed to do his core job—manage results from his direct reports. His boss worried that Eric was burning out and commanded him to take his full two weeks of vacation over the summer.
These combined events rattled Eric into a new way of seeing the world. He realized that if he didn’t take a break he would lose the two things that mattered most to him. He took the middle of June off and convinced his wife to re-plan her month too, and they disconnected from the world in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. By the second week of the retreat, he began to see more clarity about his role at home and at work. He was a leader, motivator and hopefully a cultivator of happiness and success. He vowed to take weekends off, including turning off e-mail. He went back to working out and eating dinner at home with his family. At first it was difficult, but the longer he stuck with his new time-plan, the more he realized it was giving him an edge over everyone else at work and in his industry.
By fall 2002, he had a healthy outlook, as well as energy to burn. His productivity soared, and his salespeople’s performance beat the market soundly. Even though the market was still tanking and office space was hard to sell, his team found a way to be successful.
When the market bounced back a few years later and his company merged with a much larger conglomerate, Eric was poised for the opportunity. His new bosses saw him as fresh, well respected and resilient. He moved up the ladder and became the vice president of sales. He’s still on top today, as the office space industry faces another round of pressure. He’s a rare survivor of scarcity. He caught it in time, took the right prescription and stuck with the plan over the years.
Here’s my refreshment plan for your summer.
1. Take at least one week off before Labor Day (if you have it available). Don’t sit around the house—go somewhere where nature will convince you to forget about the world.
2. Don’t take your laptop with you on the trip. Carry your cell phone, but give strict instructions that you are only to be bothered with an emergency. Only check your e-mail once every two days.
3. Take a full weekend day off for the rest of the year. Don’t check e-mail or even think about work.
4. Devote one hour a day to exercise and self-education.
I promise you that by the end of 2009, you’ll be energized and ready for anything.
TIM SANDERS, a top-rated speaker on the lecture circuit, is the author of Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference (Doubleday, September 2008). Check out his Web site at www.timsanders.com.
