02nd August 2010

I’m at work this week. I was last week as well but the lack of cars in the car park and the silent telephone make it clear that I’m increasingly lonely in trying to keep this particular wheel of industry turning. The Guardian reported over the weekend that up to a third of British people will holiday in the UK this year rather than risk a trip abroad but wherever it is that they are holidaying, they sure aren’t at work. My emails are getting instant ‘out of office’ replies, my drive to Bristol today was 20 minutes quicker than expected on emptier roads and getting up in the morning requires tiptoes from the dog and I as the rest of the family enjoy their (well earned) summer holiday lie-in.

A twitter conversation with @coblyn last week reminded me that my proper response to this, of course, should be some reflective learning. A lull from the pressure of normal work should be an opportunity to read that book, research that obscure article, chat with that old friend who hasn’t packed off to France just yet. I’ve written before how the brainy but infuriatingly opaque Karl Weick talks about what he inelegantly calls gulumphing – creative play – that should occupy these down times. Perhaps its one of his books that I ought to try and re-read because adjusting to the downtimes is something that I’ve always found hard. When most of our working lives are about chasing deadlines or people, the sudden absence of both is more often a threat than an opportunity.

It seems I can take consolation from not being alone in this.  Mike Southon, who advises entrepreneurs for a living, mentioned in last week’s FT that September is a boom time for start ups as the beach provides no distraction from the business plan. A Guardian survey of novelists holiday habits showed that nearly all of them continue writing by the pool and a similar survey of managers in the FT shows most of them still welded to their Blackberry while building sandcastles for the kids. Something deep within us finds it hard to stop, even when we know we can and usefully should.

So, ‘Making Sense of the Organization’ for me, then.  And I need to get a shift on because I go on holiday on Friday……