Time away ultimately puts money in your pocket.
Do you know someone who makes a point of telling you how little vacation time they take? The person who’s proud to say they once took two straight weeks off, mind you, that was during the Nixon administration?
Farmers and ranchers, generally speaking, take far fewer holidays than urban folks.
Anne Stevick, for one, has a certain amount of sympathy for this position.
“There are a couple of reasons why farmers don’t get away more often,” says Stevick, who farms with her husband Quentin near Pincher Creek, Alberta. “First, there’s a lot of work to do. Second, it’s hard to find somebody to stand in for you. You can draw on neighbors and relatives for only so long, then it costs you a lot to hire someone to take care of your place while you’re gone.”
In spite of it all, the Stevicks have made it a personal priority over the years to take time away from the farm, often travelling for a couple of weeks at a stretch. Now in their mid-50s, they’ll tell you this practice has allowed them to enjoy life more and renewed their interest in agriculture.
Their vacations began as driving holidays around Western Canada visiting customers. Later, they broadened their horizons with trips to New Zealand and Uruguay. If all goes according to plan, they’ll visit Australia in 2009.
Some producers will make the calculation that every day away from the farm costs them money. Anne Stevick is a firm believer that the opposite might be true. Time away ultimately puts money in your pocket.
“I heard a speaker once who said, ‘Spend more time working on the business than working in the business,’” Stevick says. “You need to get away because you come back with a clear head and some new ideas.”
When Maureen Wilt hears people brag about never taking holidays, she’s not impressed. Wilt, associate professor at the University of Central Missouri’s College of Health and Human Services, gives this syndrome a more clinical name: overwork.
“We tend to minimize the very real health concerns that are posed by overwork,” says Wilt. “Men who don’t take regular vacations are 32 percent more likely to die of heart attacks, and 21 percent more likely to die early of all causes. Women have 50 percent more risk of heart attack. Health is an important priority that I think is tragically ignored by many.”
Wilt cites research indicating that a major health concern of farmers is the risk of injuries due to accidents. Many farm accidents can ultimately be traced to lack of sleep, a frequent side-effect of overwork.
Wilt notes that in Japan, there’s even a legal term to cover the most extreme consequences of this tendency. The word in Japanese is karoshi, meaning death from overwork. Families of those who work more than 80 hours of overtime per month are eligible for a payment in the event their loved one dies on the job. And it happens.
For the sake of their health, Wilt urges farmers to take these risks seriously and be proactive about taking time off.
"Today we have become so accustomed to overwork, it’s like the smog in Los Angeles,” she says. “People who aren’t from there are amazed that people in L.A. can live under such bad conditions. It’s like that with overwork. We see it as a normal way of life, but people from other countries are amazed at how little time we take off and don’t know how we do it.”
Creativity is good for business
The North American economy is changing, and with it, the agricultural economy. Producing low-cost commodities or goods is no longer the ticket to success that it once was. Increasingly, sales and market share go to those with the ability to create new technologies, develop new products and cultivate new brands.
As Catherine O’Keefe explains, the innovators of tomorrow are unlikely to be the sleep-deprived of today.
“Productivity actually increases when people get vacation and downtime,” says O’Keefe, senior instructor in Health and Leisure at the University of Alabama. “The creativity that is needed for new and entrepreneurial ideas rarely happens when we’re sitting at a desk. We need to get away to have the time to get our heads around what’s important to us.”
Looking back on 30 years of business success and more than a few vacations, Anne Stevick thinks it’s no coincidence.
“As farmers, when you walk out your front door, you’re at work,” she says. “We have realized for a long time that if you can get away now and then, it just makes a big difference to your day-to-day job and to your life.”
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Time away ultimately puts money in your pocket.
Do you know someone who makes a point of telling you how little vacation time they take? The person who’s proud to say they once took two straight weeks off, mind you, that was during the Nixon administration?
Farmers and ranchers, generally speaking, take far fewer holidays than urban folks.
Anne Stevick, for one, has a certain amount of sympathy for this position.
“There are a couple of reasons why farmers don’t get away more often,” says Stevick, who farms with her husband Quentin near Pincher Creek, Alberta. “First, there’s a lot of work to do. Second, it’s hard to find somebody to stand in for you. You can draw on neighbors and relatives for only so long, then it costs you a lot to hire someone to take care of your place while you’re gone.”
In spite of it all, the Stevicks have made it a personal priority over the years to take time away from the farm, often travelling for a couple of weeks at a stretch. Now in their mid-50s, they’ll tell you this practice has allowed them to enjoy life more and renewed their interest in agriculture.
Their vacations began as driving holidays around Western Canada visiting customers. Later, they broadened their horizons with trips to New Zealand and Uruguay. If all goes according to plan, they’ll visit Australia in 2009.
Some producers will make the calculation that every day away from the farm costs them money. Anne Stevick is a firm believer that the opposite might be true. Time away ultimately puts money in your pocket.
“I heard a speaker once who said, ‘Spend more time working on the business than working in the business,’” Stevick says. “You need to get away because you come back with a clear head and some new ideas.”
When Maureen Wilt hears people brag about never taking holidays, she’s not impressed. Wilt, associate professor at the University of Central Missouri’s College of Health and Human Services, gives this syndrome a more clinical name: overwork.
“We tend to minimize the very real health concerns that are posed by overwork,” says Wilt. “Men who don’t take regular vacations are 32 percent more likely to die of heart attacks, and 21 percent more likely to die early of all causes. Women have 50 percent more risk of heart attack. Health is an important priority that I think is tragically ignored by many.”
Wilt cites research indicating that a major health concern of farmers is the risk of injuries due to accidents. Many farm accidents can ultimately be traced to lack of sleep, a frequent side-effect of overwork.
Wilt notes that in Japan, there’s even a legal term to cover the most extreme consequences of this tendency. The word in Japanese is karoshi, meaning death from overwork. Families of those who work more than 80 hours of overtime per month are eligible for a payment in the event their loved one dies on the job. And it happens.
For the sake of their health, Wilt urges farmers to take these risks seriously and be proactive about taking time off.
"Today we have become so accustomed to overwork, it’s like the smog in Los Angeles,” she says. “People who aren’t from there are amazed that people in L.A. can live under such bad conditions. It’s like that with overwork. We see it as a normal way of life, but people from other countries are amazed at how little time we take off and don’t know how we do it.”
Creativity is good for business
The North American economy is changing, and with it, the agricultural economy. Producing low-cost commodities or goods is no longer the ticket to success that it once was. Increasingly, sales and market share go to those with the ability to create new technologies, develop new products and cultivate new brands.
As Catherine O’Keefe explains, the innovators of tomorrow are unlikely to be the sleep-deprived of today.
“Productivity actually increases when people get vacation and downtime,” says O’Keefe, senior instructor in Health and Leisure at the University of Alabama. “The creativity that is needed for new and entrepreneurial ideas rarely happens when we’re sitting at a desk. We need to get away to have the time to get our heads around what’s important to us.”
Looking back on 30 years of business success and more than a few vacations, Anne Stevick thinks it’s no coincidence.
“As farmers, when you walk out your front door, you’re at work,” she says. “We have realized for a long time that if you can get away now and then, it just makes a big difference to your day-to-day job and to your life.”
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