Time Off

When we go to school as children, we learn to take the summers off for two months.

When we go to university, we learn to take even longer breaks of four months.

When we go to work our first job, we have no break for one year. After one year we get two weeks. If we stay at that job long enough, we might eventually get up to five weeks off, most of which we will not be able to take.

Why do the breaks stop after entering the ‘real world’ of work?

When I taught English in Japan we received six weeks of vacation for working part-time, 30 hours a week. For two years, I took six weeks of vacation. It felt amazing. I always went back to work rejuvenated.

When I came back from Japan, I pondered for a long time what to do with my life. I ended up choosing librarian and went back to school to get my Master’s degree. While several factors played into this decision, two of them were related to creating a lifestlyle with built-in breaks. Much work is available as contract work, and most librarians are women which meant an opportunity to take maternity leave contracts. 

With this in mind I thought I would mix working along with breaks in between contracts, kind of like a self-imposed sabbatical. This time would be used for travel and creative pursuits. This felt to me, like an ideal life.

But, how often do we live our ideal life?

After finishing school I was lucky enough to find a job I loved and spent the next 4.5 years there. The only thing that made me leave was the opportunity to pursue a startup that lasted just six months. 

After coming home from Chile, I decided not to look for a job right away mainly because I wasn’t really interested in one. I thought I would pursue another entrepreneurial idea. I thought I would tap into the community to see what was hot, new and exciting and maybe work on that. But none of that happened.

Instead, I am lucky enough to find myself in a period of…I’m not sure what to call it. So far this has lasted nearly four months. At first I worked intensively on new ideas. Then I lost steam and started reading books and talking to people, looking for answers as to what to do next. Then, came the realization that compells me to write this post:

Solitude is needed to be your most creative and productive self.

I’ve started reading books again.

I’ve started writing again.

I’ve done some coding.

I've generated new ideas.

I’ve gotten back into yoga.

I’ve slept well.

I’ve enjoyed time with people important to me.

When you are given the gift of time it’s always interesting to pay attention to what you do with it. For me, I always go back to old loves. 

Most importantly, without the mental heaviness of work I was freed to think (and I mean, really think) hard about everything I’ve done and where I want to go next. This is the kind of assessment we all need to do regularly. But it’s impossible to do it unless you are alone.

Taking time to breathe has always been important to me. But I forgot until I ended up on a break. If you are stuck or even(especially) if you are not, take some time to be by yourself for a period of time. Whether it’s just a weekend away or an hour a day, pay close attention to what you do with that time.

The Importance of Customer Service

On a map, I can draw a 1 km circle around my house and easily find half a dozen yoga or pilates studios. There is a lot of choice in downtown Toronto if you want to work out.

I'm sure daily deal coupons bring new customers in from all over the city but most of their business probably comes from people who live or work in the area.

I've visited four of these studios in the past year on a combination of daily deals or new student specials. Each have a very good selection of classes and excellent teachers. 

So, how do I choose who I give my long-term business to? 

It all depends on the person at the front desk.

The winning studio greets new students with a smile and an explanation of the studio and where everything is located. On each subsequent visit, she smiles and says hello. That's it.  

The classes last an hour or more, so does it make any sense that I base my decision on ten seconds from the person at the front desk, rather than the class itself or the instructor? Honestly, the quality of the classes and instructors is pretty much the same, so yes, it comes down to the first ten seconds of each visit.

Sometimes these seconds are fine, sometimes they are exceptional. Sometimes they are downright terrible.

Here is an example of what happened to me last week at a studio I will not be returning to after my 10-class pass is finished.

I enter the studio. I glance over at the front desk person who is writing something, her head buried in her desk.

I take off my shoes. I'm the only person in the waiting area. I walk over to her desk and scan my card. She does not look up. 

My card scan does not work. So I try again. It goes through on my second try. At this point I've been standing directly in front of her for 15 seconds, close enough to touch her, and she fails to acknowledge my presence.

So, I appropriately acknowledge them as a studio that does not deserve my business. How much does that cost them? $1,000 or more per year?!

A long, long, time ago, in another life, I worked at Zellers. Though it's now long dead, I learned a lot about customer service there.

One of the rules we had to follow was the 10-foot rule: On the sales floor, when a customer came within 10 feet of you, no matter what you were doing, you had to stop and acknowledge them with a greeting or a smile. It was a small thing, but hard to maintain consistently if you were engaged in something, as customers would inevitably be encouraged by your openness, to chat or ask for help. But I understand fully why they had this as a rule. 

Whether your business is online or in-person, never underestimate the power of simply acknowledging the presence of your customer. So many businesses don't bother, so you'll be miles ahead.