by Brenda Tassava, CVPM, CVJ
When I visit practices, one of the first things that happens is someone gives me a tour of the hospital. I find it interesting to see the kind of space that has been created for staff breaks and lunches. It’s not so much the space itself, but finding out whether or not that space is being used by the team.
When I ask if the team is using the space, I get one of two reactions:
- Something along the lines of an eye-roll and a sigh, with a response of “never! It’s a complete waste of space.”
- A surprised look, and a response of “why yes, they are in here all the time.”
What’s the difference between these scenarios when everything else appears to be the same? I believe it’s a result of whether or not the practice culture is supportive of not only work-life balance, but also personal choice.
You might think to yourself, everyone has the right to choose when and where to take their lunch break, but that’s often not the case when the practice culture doesn’t make it a priority. Ask yourself these questions, relative to your practice:
Does your appointment schedule build-in a lunch hour for your veterinarians? In many hospitals, there is no such thing as a lunch break for the veterinarian. They are expected to find time for lunch in between appointments, or between morning appointments and afternoon surgeries to wolf down whatever they can get their hands on. We are setting our doctors up for burn-out and sending the wrong message to the team when we do this. Build an hour into their schedule, and let them choose to go to lunch or use the time to do call-backs while they eat something they’ve brought from home. Either way, you are showing you care and giving them more control over their day.
Does your staff schedule assign blocks of time for lunch breaks that are staggered and allow for coverage, while giving everyone the opportunity to take at least 30-minutes for themselves? When you build lunch time into the schedule, it sets the expectation that lunch breaks are the norm. If we reverse it and give the staff straight shifts to work, with the assumption that they’ll work it out and find time to take turns for lunch, we’re sending the wrong message. We’re telling them it’s not a priority and there’s a subliminal message being sent that they should be working straight through their shift.
Do you, as a leader in the practice, take time for yourself at lunch, or do you work through it? If you’re working through lunch everyday, you’re sending a message to your team that you expect them to do the same. Like it or not, your behavior sets the tone for the rest of the team. If you want a healthy, productive group of people then model work-life balance for them.
Do you have team members who NEVER take a lunch break, and often voice how busy they are? Strong work ethic is a good thing, until it becomes peer pressure to out-work everyone around you. If you have a self-professed workaholic on the floor, this person may be inadvertently making everyone else feel guilty every time they choose to take a break. Help your hard worker see that even a short break can help them be more productive, giving them more energy to get the job done.
Our workplace cultures really come down to one thing, which is choice. As a group of people who spend a lot of time together, the more opportunities we can find to allow for personal choices to be made, the better our work environment will become. As an owner or manager, look critically at whether or not choice is an option for your team members. If your team’s not comfortable making choices, then it’s very difficult to choose to have a great day at work.