Are we going to the beach and staying away from the office for too long?
There's a chap called Toss Grumley who thinks so, he's written a column about it. He's a young mover and shaker, business advisor, director, investor in multiple New Zealand entities.
He reckons that our summer breaks are so long now that we're pretty much winding down from November and then we're only sparking up again in February, which means that we're taking about 10 weeks of productive conversations out of the business calendar and it's hurting our productivity.
And we have no retail spending in January really to speak of, and businesses have poor cash flow at the start of the year when they come to have a look at it in April, May because they are taking excessively long shutdown periods.
Now, I think Toss has got a point here. We do this.
This is why you'll see the Reserve Bank leaves the economy basically in park for two months until they come back in February.
But then again, I don't want this to change. Do you?
I would rather work flat out for 11 months a year and then take a nice long break over summer than work all year round at an even pace.
I think this is just human nature because summer is for enjoying.
Summer is for spending with your kids, it's for going out there, having a swim, getting out in the sun, doing all the things that make life worth living, seeing your family, all the good stuff.
Plenty of countries do this too, we're not the only ones.
Try getting anything done in Europe in the month of August and you are out of luck.
This year, the Bank of England just by way of an example, you go look at any central bank, Bank of England will not make a single decision for the entire month of August and then also for the first two weeks of September.
Now, maybe Toss has a point that the summer is getting too long.
Maybe we should be powering ourselves right up until Christmas, then stopping and then coming back after maybe 4 or 5 weeks and getting stuck into it again at the start of February rather than taking 10 weeks off with our brains.
Fair enough.
But can I just say this ... I urge caution here.
We have a really great work-life balance in this country. We understand that life is for living, not just for working. We have a joy about our lives.
Don't throw that away too easily.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show.
6 comments:
A lot people do take a month off either physically or mentally by their attitude over summer. Is this a factor in our low productivity.
How an employer is expected to carry workers for unproductive time is beyond me. The right of the employee has become over the top. Also when year 11 students have 2 weeks study time in October/early Nov to prepare for exams, then take exams in November, then aren’t required to attend school for the rest of the year, seems time wasted. As an older person I’m very sure the 3 term year, individual classrooms and discipline we received produced far better outcomes. And we still had 5-6 weeks summer break.
Sitting on butts instilled from school holdays' days. In other countries, school 'breaks' and holidays a time to catch up on or advance schoolwork. In NZ kids goof off. Imagine if any Kiwi needed to study or work in, say, Singapore or China.... To be fair, a small % in NZ work all the time, partly for hopeful advancement but also to do the work of lazier colleagues who live on Island Time.
AND...... We really do not get back to WERK until after Matareeki.... Just note how many public holidays, long weekends gobble up the months post summertime.
And re education studies show that students often experience a decline in achievement scores during summer breaks, with research indicating that this loss can be substantial, by at least one month’s worth of learning, with the declines being exponential for mathematics.
Tosser Grumbleguts can moan all he wants.
The phenomena known as "The Great Australasian Shutdown" has been around for decades.
Employees have the earned the right to take their annual leave and can take it as and when they see fit.
Employers have been managing their "people resources" for decades too so why is it now an issue?
Because some random bloke "reckons" it hurts our productivity?
Let's hope the businesses for which he advises demand more fact and figures to back up their decisions rather than someone who merely reckons or "feels".
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