The first snow of the winter arrived this week.
In years past I would have felt a brief burst of childish excitement.
Snow! When you didn’t grow up with it, snow has a certain novelty value.
A blanket of white magically transforming normally dreary suburban streets lined with parked cars.
This year, not so much!
At a little after seven in the evening I found myself walking home along the Thames path.
In the dark.
In a suit and tie.
In the flurries of snow.
The tide was out, and the puddles visible on the exposed muddy river bank were frozen over. Yet the snow wasn’t settling, preferring to melt when it made contact with the ground.
In a display of remarkable indecision worthy of any middle manager, it quickly refroze. The footpath was transformed into an ice rink.
Steadfast pedestrians trudging home began taking overly deliberate steps, the kind usually performed by the very drunk when attempting to appear sober!
Several less cautious pedestrians gave spontaneous Disney-on-ice impersonations, ending in bruised prides and posteriors.
Return to work
The arrival of the cold weather marks the end of my latest stint of semi-retirement.
For several years now I have chosen to follow a seasonal working pattern.
While the sun is shining I like to play outside and enjoy being a man of leisure.
As the weather turns cold, wet, and windy I seek out a client with a genuinely interesting tricky problem. I then hibernate for the winter in their nice warm offices, helping them solve it.
Sometimes the client engagements and the seasons don’t always align quite as well as I would like, so this may require a bit of flexibility.
I have previously written observations and lessons from semi-retirement, including the fact that decompressing from the daily grind takes longer than you may think.
Today I thought I would write about the opposite end of my seasonal working pattern, the reentry to the working world.
Reentry
This transition could quite accurately be described as experiencing “compression”! Consider a typical “day in the life” of semi-retired me versus working me.
Semi-retired me enjoyed six hours of time to myself every school day, and regularly ate lunch.
Working me gets at best one hour of time to myself on a school day, and trades a lunch break in favour of a late start to accommodate the school drop-offs.
Semi-retired me got to enjoy up to eight hours a day hanging out with my family.
Working me sees them for less than half that amount, employing a nanny to cover the after-school shift.
Semi-retired me was able to invest the hours where I have the most brainpower in fulfilling activities, such as writing blog posts.
Working me invests those same productive hours working for the client. Those fulfilling activities get banished to the late evenings when my batteries are flat and motivation is low.
Compression
This “compression” occurs in all facets of working life.
My kids feel shortchanged because they see much less of me.
My hobbies and interests tumble down the priority list.
Scarce time gets triaged in favour of needs over wants. The chores and errands required to keep my family fed, clothed, and happy takes precedence.
Constantly needing to be places at certain times throughout the day creates a somewhat harried sense of being in a rush, running late, and always being aware of the time.
Consciously observing these competing priorities and stressors unfold after an extended absence has been a fascinating, albeit uncomfortable, experience.
Reentry to corporate life is always challenging.
The size of that challenge seems to increase with each iteration of semi-retirement.
Sitting down, sitting still, sitting long
The sedentary existence of a laptop jockey comes as a rude shock after an extended period being constantly active.
An hour spent (sometimes) sitting on public transport to get to work.
Eight hours spent (mostly) sitting at a mixture of hot desks, break-out tables, and meeting room tables
Another hour spent (hopefully) sitting on public transport to get home again.
That is a lot of sitting!
There is a lot of hype surrounding the perceived health benefits of standing desks. However it appears the science fails to live up to the marketing. A recent study that compared energy expenditure of seating versus standing found standing at a desk burned only 8 calories per hour more than sitting at a desk.
Over an 8 hour work day that adds up to just 64 calories, less than a single chocolate digestive biscuit!
I wonder whether standing desks might just be the next step in the never-ending quest to reduce staffing costs. Profit maximising management consultants have already taken away offices, defined benefit pensions, job security, training, allocated desks, drawers, lockers, and garbage bins… what makes desk chairs any different?
Creeping tension
The day after you’ve recovered from a cold you don’t really notice the absence of a runny nose or a sore throat. Muscular tension is similarly annoying while you have it, but quickly forgotten when it is gone.
Stiff neck.
Tired eyes.
Broken sleep.
Grinding teeth.
Rigidity across the shoulders.
An occasional tension headache.
Unconsciously hunched posture when seated, requiring conscious relaxing to undo.
Increased caffeine consumption, simultaneously compensating for and contributing to the broken sleep cycle.
I didn’t miss any of that when it was gone, and certainly didn’t welcome any of it when it inevitably returned!
Administrivia and busy work
My first morning at the new site was spent in an hour-long status update meeting.
Ten people sat around a conference table.
Each person took turns to inform the project manager of things they should have already known.
Nine people watching the project manager compile a weekly status update for their stakeholders.
The majority of the discussion fell into the (possibly) “interesting, yet irrelevant” category for all the attendees except for the project manager.
That single meeting consumed the equivalent of 1.25 man-days of combined effort… potentially more had any of the participants bothered preparing for the meeting in advance.
Applying a rough blended staffing cost of £750 per person per day, that meeting cost the organisation more than £1,000 in resourcing costs.
I’m told the meeting recurs every Monday.
Over the course of a year that unnecessary weekly meeting lightens the wallet of the resource-starved organisation by more than £52,000 per year.
It also consumes more than three man-months of combined effort in aggregate!
All because the project manager, who was already costing the organisation more than £52,000 in wages, is acceptably incompetent at their job.
Meeting discipline
I have a low boredom threshold, and hate having my time wasted. Therefore badly run meetings have always been a pet peeve of mine.
At my new client site I have already observed the full set of poor meeting behaviours!
- Tardiness.
- No minutes recorded.
- Few decisions being made.
- The absence of an agenda.
- Too many people in the room.
- Invitees accepting the meeting, then failing to turn up.
- Those in attendance rarely empowered to make decisions.
- Déjà vu as the same meeting is held again. And again. And again…
- Meetings expanding to last their full allocation of time, unnecessarily.
- Absentees subsequently having tantrums about discussions they hadn’t bothered to show up for.
I like the sound of the fabled Amazon approach to meetings (though I am yet to meet anyone who has actually witnessed it put into practice):
- There is always an agenda.
- Attendees turn up on time.
- The only people attending are those required to make the decisions in the room.
- Attendees will be given a six-page narrative paper that provides the context and information required to make a well-informed decision.
- They silently read the paper in the room, ensuring everyone is equally well prepared.
- A meaningful discussion is held about the topic of the briefing paper.
- A decision is made, and everyone moves forward.
There are no slides. No informs. No padding out calendars with bullshit meetings to fill in the day.
Sounds like winning to me!
Concentration span
Over the years I have learned my brain is good for about six hours per day of applied concentration. After that my batteries go flat, my brain power reduces, and my effectiveness declines.
I don’t see this as a problem, and have learned to both accept it and use that knowledge effectively.
Six well spent productive hours are often more productive than most distraction filled, context shifting, full time working days.
If I’m brutally honest, six well used hours is more productive than many full time working weeks!
Where my client engagements are billed on a time and materials basis, then the contract usually includes vaguely defined term “professional day” as the unit of measurement.
I choose to base that measure on tangible output, rather than time spent at my desk. To me, completing deliverables on time and to a high standard is the mark of success.
completing deliverables on time and to a high standard is the mark of success.
Being busy versus looking busy
This approach has created some waves at times!
If I need to stretch my legs or clear my head I will go outside for a walk.
When my brain is fried, my batteries flat, or my mojo missing I will get up and go home.
Once my work is done for the day I will leave, regardless of whether it is 11:00 or 18:00.
Sacrilegious though this may sound, I am yet to encounter a situation in an office environment where a problem genuinely couldn’t wait until the next morning without the business burning down or someone actually dying!
This holds true irrespective of the ambient levels of self-importance present in many workplaces.
Client’s (usually) get used to this approach, once they come to appreciate the difference between being busy and looking busy.
Getting the work done is what matters, the rest is noise.
It is worth observing that as an external service provider, I don’t get involved in office politics or currying favour. Nor am I held to ransom by the lure of an annual bonus or the promise of advancement.
My performance is appraised constantly, in real time.
Success is being allowed back on site the next day.
Getting the work done is what matters, the rest is noise.
Managing
When recruiting I try to find people who possess superpowers: common sense, research skills, and applied problem-solving.
I teach my staff what they need to do, then get out of their way and trust them to do it.
They are encouraged them to think for themselves, ask questions (once), listen to the answers, and learn from them.
I don’t care where or when they do their work, providing their deliverables are completed on time and to the same high standards I demand of myself.
Those who can, thrive and grow.
Those who can’t get moved on. Quickly. I have no time for passengers.
It can be brutal at times, but it works.
This approach has made more than a few sponsors and line managers nervous, but has also established a network of very talented people who are good at what they do.
I must confess to being disappointed if an employee sticks around in a job for more than a year or so.
Each role can only teach a finite amount, before the law of diminishing returns kicks in.
A person needs to be challenged in order to continue growing. That may require a move upwards or sideways within an organisation, or changing employers altogether.
The important thing is to grow. The alternative is to stagnate or atrophy, neither of which is appealing.
Déjà vu all over again
I must confess the initial excitement at the prospect of solving a tricky problem over this winter quickly waned.
It happened on morning of day 2, while waiting at the bus stop.
The bus slowed as it approached, indicator turning on. Then the driver switched it off and accelerated past without stopping.
This is something my elder son has regularly complained about, but it was the first time I had experienced it personally. Myself, and the half dozen blazer wearing high school students standing next to me, then had to wait 15 minutes for the next bus to arrive, making me late for a meeting.
It isn’t all bad however.
The appeal of topping up my bank account remains.
So too does the prospect of knocking some rust off my (fortunately still) marketable skillset.
My new colleagues are a friendly bunch, and I’m getting to renew some past acquaintances while learning a new sector.
I do wonder just how many more semi-retirements there will be before one of them becomes permanent.
I suspect that will be something that creeps up on me by stealth, rather than being a conscious decision.
It will be fascinating to see how it plays out!
References
- Bezos, J. (2018), ‘Letter to Amazon shareholders‘
- Creasy, S., Rogers, R., Byard, T., Kowalsky, R., & Jakicic, J. (2016). ‘Energy Expenditure During Acute Periods of Sitting, Standing, and Walking’. Journal of Physical Activity & Health.
Caveman 25 January 2019
I got down just reading those sections on tension and meetings!
Do you think that your re-entry is worse because you’ve been out of it for a few months? What you describe is basically normal for the workplace but people just get used to it when it’s what happens every day. I can see that coming in, having been nicely decompressed, would make all of that feel worse.
I feel that there is a kind of protective “work stamina” that must of us build up. It’s a version of stoicism I reckon to allow us to get through each day without shouting or throwing things. Hope yours builds back up soon!
{in·deed·a·bly} 25 January 2019 — Post author
Thanks Caveman. Apologies if I have depressed you!
This isn’t intended as a “woe is me” piece. I thought it would be an interesting counterpoint to my lessons from retirement post, documenting the journey back into the workforce.
As you correctly observe, we quickly become accustomed and desensitised to many of these everyday occurrences, ceasing to stop and think about whether they are normal or required.
I’m incredibly fortunate to be have found a client with an interesting tricky problem to solve, in a sector where I am learning a lot, with a bunch of genuinely nice new colleagues.
ermine 28 January 2019
You have just reminded me why I sweated through three years of hell to be shot of that sort of thing forever. I am too old to put up with my dwindling time being (ab)used like that. Thank you 😉
Yann 28 January 2019
Wise words, Ermine.
There’s a lot to be said for bull**** minimisation as a life strategy. It took me eight years to escape.
{in·deed·a·bly} 28 January 2019 — Post author
I’m glad your lifestyle choices have put you in a happier place ermine!
Mattman 2 February 2019
I “fired” 2 and a half years ago and was back for 3 weeks to cover a Paternity Leave. The first few days were lovely – I really like my ex colleagues and catching up was wonderful. Then it was back to the bureacracy & admin filled nightmare that is modern teaching. The kids were fine but the silliness had become worse as the management don’t trust colleagues to be professional & do the job.
Three financially very rewarding weeks but it was an excellent reminder never to go back. The stress was starting to build up, as you noticed Indeedably, and I rapidly lost all the benefits of decompression.
{in·deed·a·bly} 2 February 2019 — Post author
Thanks Mattman.
It sounds like we have shared a similar experience. What alarms me is how quickly we become conditioned to accepting that stress and institutional silliness is “normal“. My semi-retirements have taught me that life doesn’t that life doesn’t have to be that way. I suspect that is one of the reasons why returning to work is getting harder each time!
thecannycontractor 2 February 2019
I really enjoyed this post. I plan to follow your lead, in the ‘seasonal working pattern’. In some ways, this setup is a nice balance (even though it may not feel like it). It sounds like you relish the challenge of something new and/or problem solving.
And that’s the thing. FIRE to me, is finding that balance between pleasure and purpose i.e. having the me time/ family time/ hobbies for X months and then back to something…something that feels relatively rewarding, something different, something that will make us grow as a person. We might not necessarily want to start back, but we may need it. If that makes sense?
But I can understand the heaviness you feel, starting back after a chunk of time off.
Can I just ask how you handle the gaps on the CV, if probed during an interview? I recently took a chunk of time off and I was quizzed about the ‘missing in action’ months. It was definitely the elephant in the room. Taking time off for travel/rest might not wash with the next interviewers…
{in·deed·a·bly} 2 February 2019 — Post author
Thanks CannyContractor. The seasonal pattern works for me, I doubt I would have decompressed if I had been able to make been able to make a go of part time working.
I have been running my own firm for a while, taking on project based work rather than signing on as an extra pair of freelance hands. Clients were generally more interested in hearing about a proven delivery track record and what I could do for them, than they were about how I had been keeping myself occupied between engagements.
When I was freelancing I used to put a single line explanation on my CV to explain any gap that lasted for more than a couple of months. This followed a pattern along the lines of “The period between X and Y was spent travelling through the United States before relocating to country Z” or “From X to Y I was a stay at home father looking after my newborn son“.
Several hiring managers seemed more interested in these adventures than they were in my work experience, perhaps they made me appear more interesting to talk to than the other candidates?
In my experience there can be several reasons behind probing employment gaps:
As long as you have a good story to tell about why the time off was well spent, then most hiring managers don’t care. Perhaps you were writing a novel, or renovating your house, or backpacking through South East Asia. Of course your mileage may vary if you told them that you’d spent six months watching unemployment television or completing Grand Theft Auto!
thecannycontractor 3 February 2019
Thanks for the detailed advice Indeedably. I never thought about putting the one liner in the CV and just being honest (to a certain degree). It’s much better than trying to explain this during an interview for a new project. I have a valid reason/ or story so you’ve put my mind at ease. Good luck with your firm in the new project
Mrs W 4 February 2019
In a lot of ways seasonal working makes a lot of sense, but I’m not sure if I could put up with returning over and over again. I returned once after my first maternity leave, but didn’t bother going back at all after my second. The thought was too depressing, so I went freelance instead. Do you have any concrete plans for how long you’re going to keep up seasonal working?
{in·deed·a·bly} 4 February 2019 — Post author
Thanks Mrs W, I share your reentry pain! One side effect of freelancing is you potentially experience it more often as you move from one client site to the next. After a while they all seem pretty similar and start to blend together.
Concrete plans? Not really. My youngest son has 12 years to go at school, so possibly as long as that, but we shall see.