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Business Rule #53:
Make Time for Downtime
January 21, 2007
(PAGE 2 of 3)
Bad planning and a lack of direction was only part of Michelle’s problem. When it got late and her team wanted to get some shuteye before having to conduct their tour, Michelle wouldn’t hear from it. She insisted that her team pull an all-nighter.
A good manager encourages their people to have lives outside of work. For most people, supporting their family and personal life is why they are willing to put in the long hours. When your staff is on, they should be on. And when they are off, they should be off. Driving your staff non-stop is not only hard on them, it’s simply bad business.
Author and business pundit Steven Covey likes to talk about “sharpening the saw,” an idea goes something like this: If you keep sawing wood non-stop, never pausing, never taking time for the maintenance of your saw or yourself, you may have terrific success in the short term. Before long though, the saw would become so dull that it wouldn’t cut, and you’ll become so tired that you’ll collapse. How much better would it be to plan downtime so that your tools are able to get their required routine maintenance and your staff gets a chance to go back to their jobs well rested with a fresh perspective? I’m not saying that to recover from the work week you’ve got to have mojitos and a massage, like Kinetic enjoyed, but encouraging your team to take time off for recreation is as vital as making sure they show up Monday morning.
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At one company where I worked, a new manager was assigned to the printing department. The first thing he did was increase everyone’s hours, insisting on a six-day work week. He pushed for more and more production, and he got it...at least for the short term. The corporate officers were so impressed by the growth that they promoted him to a higher position. Not long after he left, people and equipment that had been strained for months finally started breaking down. The inevitable happened, and some major overhauls were needed and production dropped drastically. Sadly, the powers that be blamed the new print manager, rather than the one they had promoted. Everyone in the print shop though knew whose policies it was that caused the breakdown.
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Driving your
