Why do We Work Such Long Hours?
By Robyn Pearce
(581 words)
Awhile back I was running a series of seminars all around New Zealand for small business owners on behalf of the National Bank. A recurring theme is how to work less hours. Some are doing it, some are looking for ways to do it, others think they’re locked in and have no choice but to work crazy hours.
Dave owns an automotive care business.
‘I used to open Saturday mornings. One Saturday afternoon, as I rolled home exhausted, it hit me like a bomb that every weekend I was too tired to do anything with my family. It seemed the weekend had just begun when Monday showed up.
‘I got to thinking - if I felt like that, so probably did my staff, and was that fair? Then I asked myself: ‘Would it damage the business if we didn’t open on Saturdays?’
‘I decided to risk losing business and stop Saturday trading. That was five years ago. It has made no impact at all on the company profits.
‘Customers just organise themselves better, with automotive needs handled during the week. The shop shuts at 5pm, and the customers fit in with me.’
That started a very spirited debate. Several people in the room had seven-day businesses.
‘We service large 24/7 manufacturing plants. I have to be call all the time. We’re only a small firm and that’s the way it is.’
‘We’ve got a restaurant. We finally took a weekend off, the first one in six months, and left town. The morning we were away the chef arrived over an hour late and another staff member called in sick.’
Hands started shooting up all over the room. We’d touched a raw nerve.
‘The owner of probably my most successful distribution outlet is always away having holidays and long weekends,’ Tony told us. ‘He’s trained his staff well, they’re empowered to make decisions, and he can leave them to it.’
Paul’s small team of five cover each other’s work. His daughter runs his office; she can also do warrants of fitness (their business). At any time one person can be away and the show goes on.
Another woman has run many businesses, including a dairy/milkbar/convenience store. She and her husband initially had the shop open from 5.30am – 8pm at night. Within a short time, feeling half-dead, with no energy for their small children or any quality of life, they called in an advisor.
He asked: ‘Why such long hours? Track takings each hour to see what you can change.’ (Business principle – you can’t improve what you don’t inspect.)
‘Very quickly we decided to chop an hour off each end of the day. We found smarter ways to do things; for instance, stacking the pie warmer the night before. We quickly realised that the impatient first customers at 5.30am were the same people who used to wait at the door at 6.30am. Those who had arrived at 8pm were the same people who came late at 7pm.’
The woman sitting next to her said: ‘I think we need the guts to tell our customers how we want to be treated, to take control. If we don’t set out clear expectations we’ve only got ourselves to blame.’
I’m with Dave and co. There’s no one right answer, but this I know - if we keep working crazy hours something will give. Machines don’t work well for long without maintenance; nor do we. And an important part of our maintenance is taking regular time off.
Robyn Pearce CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) is the Time Queen. She mastered her own time challenges and now helps people around the world overcome theirs. She can show you how to transform your time challenges into high productivity and the life balance you desire.
Download her free report “How to Master Time In Only 90 Seconds”, a simple yet powerful diagnostic tool to help you identify your key areas for action. You’ll find it at http://www.gettingagrip.com/products/e-books/index.asp And while you’re there, enrol for your free Top Time Tips – practical advice every two weeks
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