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Ninah's avatar

As a massage therapist who treats people with chronic pain, I need to find balance in my job. I tried taking a two week hiatus initially, but found my clients were significantly worse off and I had to work harder when I returned. So I implemented a week’s vacation every 6 weeks. This worked out much better. But now in my 70’s, I take a week off every 5 weeks. My clients are fine with that, so I get 10 weeks vacation each year and my body gets the downtime it needs to rejuvenate.

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Darrell's avatar

If you are a year round business you need more employees to cover for those off for a month. That is a difficult scheduling challenge.

To bring the issue into something more manageable to consider, think about the challenges to staff a business 7 days a week while making sure staff has two days off each week. Or staff a 24/7 operation with the same objective.

By the last 15 years of my career I had 35 days of personal time each year, allowing me to take a week off each quarter and quite a few long weekends. I made sure my top direct reports were able to effectively manage their areas and work together without my day-to-day influence. That didn’t happen over night. Even then, I would read emails while out just to keep up. That worked because I had an effective leadership team who could also cover their areas with their own teams.

Having said that, what I just described if quite difficult in a manufacturing or 24/7 business model.

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