Holidays are good for your health

• Donna Page
• 3 November 2009
• Page 1 of 2 : single page

As Christmas approaches, the term ‘holiday season' is an irony for many small business owners.

The days when Australia virtually closed down for the entire month of January are long gone. Many owner-operators are lucky to get Christmas Day off. It brings to the fore the dilemma between lifestyle and profit.

There is no doubt holidays are good for us; studies have linked overwork with anxiety, depression and workplace accidents. But the fact remains that very few small business owners take a breather from work.

According to small business coach Heidi Shannon, of BusiWizard Training and Coaching Services, less than 10% of the small business owners she works with factor in "decent breaks".

This year, Tourism Australia commissioned Sydney-based research company Jones Donald Strategy Partners to look at the issue of Australians not taking holidays. It found that across all sizes of business and industries, employees were building up leave rather than taking holidays. As of December last year, Australians had 123 million days of accrued annual leave by full-time employees, which equates to $33.3 billion in wages. The research is the basis for Tourism Australia's new domestic marketing campaign, No Leave, No Life.

Holiday-free zone

Debra Atkinson and Natasha Martin can't remember their last proper break since starting Firefly Forest, a cafe/kids' party venue business, two years ago.

"A real holiday?" says Atkinson. "I took four days off for my honeymoon but that is about it."

Atkinson, 34, is quietly confident about the future of the business but admits her work obsession is driven by a sense of financial insecurity and has created problems at home.

"Natasha and I haven't really had a holiday since we opened," she admits. "I had to go see someone and work out a way to relax. I go to meditation every week now and it helps with teaching how to relax and not be overwhelmed all the time. It got to a stage where the bills were piling up at work and the same thing was happening at home. It just drove me to work harder to try and get through that."

The business partners take three days off a fortnight, the majority of which are not consecutive.

"It's been hard on our families and I know a lot of other husbands would not have put up with it," says Atkinson. "We are hoping to eventually employ someone else to relieve some of the pressure, but I really don't know when that is going to happen. Our aim is to be able to take three or four weeks off a year like everyone else."

Martin, 32, says the only way she is able to cope is by switching off her mobile phone when she has days off. She has to.

"I really try to switch off completely from work in those few days because I really need the down time," she says. "Our main aim is trying to get to a point where we can take breaks, but we need to boost the business so we can get to that point. It's extremely challenging juggling our family and home lives when we are always thinking about the business and what we can do to improve things."

Despite the frenzied lifestyle, both women insist they are coping.

"The business has its moments and it's a great deal of hard work," Martin says. "But I love seeing the outcome of what we do on the faces of the children, it's pretty special."

All work and no play

The image of the laid-back Australian that has existed since paid holidays were introduced in 1941 (one paid week a year, which became four weeks paid leave by 1973) is no longer the norm. Australia, it seems, isn't the land of the long weekend. And that, says Shannon, is even worse when you look at small businesses.

"A lot of people do not take any days off," she says. "They will work six days a week in the business and then spend the seventh day doing bookwork.

"They don't factor in that the day-to-day duties of running a small business are exhausting and that they need to create boundaries and take time out for themselves."

But the guilt trips over getaways are definitely on the up, says Shannon.

"It's a vicious cycle, this idea that you can't take leave, because it reinforces the idea that you are indispensable. But it's only by breaking away and [seeing] that the business will survive that you realise you're not indispensable.

"You need to be able to look at the business from an outsider's perspective to drive it forward and the only way to do that is to take a break."

This sense of indispensability is a major factor

for small business owners who do just about everything in the business. The majority claim they are too busy at work and profits will plummet if they take time off.

Shannon says small business owners are increasingly addicted to their jobs, with many feeling they have little choice. But she stresses that your time is valuable and small business owners need to be able to walk away.

"Basically what we ask people to do is create an intention," she says. "Most people do not include regular breaks and work-life balance into their business plan. They need to think about what sort of lifestyle they want and that should become the basis for their business plan; it should be built into the budget from day one of the business.

"Your business will not survive if you are completely and utterly over it and your passion has died."

Shannon says outsourcing and delegation are crucial, and owners need to systemise their operations so the business runs repetitively.

"It should not matter who comes in, you can delegate things to be done daily, weekly and monthly," she says. "You should also use Pareto's law and look at where 80% of your profit comes from and focus your time and energy there; anything outside that area you can outsource to someone else. This can be a really easy way to prioritise what is important. It can be done gradually and it permanently takes the focus off you."

Balancing act

The experts aren't only worried about the physical health implications of overwork. Other areas of concern include diminished relationships, fewer personal interests and an over-reliance on career for self-worth.

Barbara Holmes, managing director of Managing Work/Life Balance International, says many small business owners feel they can't take a break, particularly in times of pressure, but that is exactly when they need time out. Holmes, who has more than 25 years experience as a human resources consultant, says regular breaks are essential for well being and clear thinking.