One of my favourite work assignments was a project based in Philadelphia that was a joint venture between an American Company and a British one. One would think the similarities between these two countries would keep cross-cultural issues to a minimum, but as anyone who has worked in both countries will tell you, the differences are more than merely adjusting to funny accents.
One of the first wrinkles that needed to ironed out was the fact that Americans take about 3 weeks vacation a year in increments of no longer than 5 days, and their British counterparts have two or three times that holiday entitlement.
While the Brits would jet off to Southern Europe for 3 weeks at a time during the summer, the Americans would be at the office working the same excessive hours as always. Interestingly, the productivity of the two groups was about the same.
This got me to thinking about how we work in North America, and how much of the time we are pretending to work. Lots of people will take offence to the notion that they are not really working, but in reality the bulk of the work at many organizations takes place in just a few weeks per year.
January through May are good production months, except for a few days around Easter and Spring Break. June through August, many people are not at work at all, and those that are working show up, but really have one eye to the outdoors and their next BBQ. September and October are usually about budgeting and planning, and while some will argue they are critical to the business, it distracts from the actual running of the business, and often adds far less value than it costs in time and effort. Finally November and December work gets done, but with the distractions of Christmas and (for the Americans) Thanksgiving.
So as a manager, how do you reconcile that the few people that do show up in July and August are probably just pretending to work? You don’t. It’s part of the deal, and most organizations don’t fall apart as a result. The real question to ask is whether the work being done the rest of the year, when the entire staff complement is in place and working at capacity has any value.
Anyway, I better take a quick lap around the office floor (holding a piece of paper, and walking quickly) so as to maintain the appearance of work, before someone figures out I’m part of the masses pretending to work during the summer months.
