As a man considers his work, and how it fits or doesn’t fit his life, he needs to set aside proper amounts of time for work, for recreation and for rest. Right from the jump, I do not think it’s a great idea to begin a job interview by asking how many vacation days you get, but I advocate taking all the days you’re given. Let’s discuss.

It’ll do you good to get away once in a while.
(Photo by Dustin Lee)

A matter of boundaries

I read Henry Cloud and John Townsend’s book, Boundaries, years ago, but I refer to its principles regularly. One of the main ideas is that you must decide what you are willing to give within any relationship and you must discipline yourself not to give more than you have decided to give. Your relationship with your employer is no different.

When you’re paying with cash, you know you aren’t going to spend more than you have in your wallet — boundaries are like this. You have only so much you’re willing to commit in terms of hours or effort. After that, it’s time to go. The great lesson of the book is teaching readers that it is completely moral and virtuous to say no once you’ve hit your limit.

Earning your man card?

Some men think — and their bosses encourage them to think — that putting in long hours is proof of manly excellence. I submit that this is cultish nonsense. I once worked with a very effective Operations Manager who was fond of saying, “Never confuse activity with results.” Office work in the era of the knowledge economy is one of the biggest potential time-eaters. The near-universal use of smart phones means that without your enforcement of boundaries, your work will follow you home.

Instead of mindlessly killing time at the office or being always “on” through every weekend and holiday, I’d much rather have clear objectives and deadlines with the ability to measure and document progress. If my team is so good they can accomplish their tasks within normal business hours, that says good things about them — and their boss.

Some jobs are more time-dependent, though. I’ve worked agriculture, construction and retail along the way, and each has different requirements. In the former two, you’re against a deadline and you have to get as much done as you can while you have daylight and good weather; in the latter, you have to stay at your post as long as the store is open – no exceptions. The good news is, all those jobs stayed put when I clocked out.

So what happens when you pound Red Bull?

When you’re full of adrenaline and bull bile, you can feel super effective. Those feelings can mislead you. A  study published recently in the British medical journal Lancet found that work effectiveness decreased dramatically after 56 hours per week. For those who pushed to 70 hours per week, they got no more work done than the subjects working 56 hours per week. If your boss is pushing you to put in more time at the office, you may want to refer him to this study.

But worse than wasting time, people who logged more than 56 hours per week at the office also had a 33% greater risk of adverse health effects like heart attack or stroke. Get that? Working all those extra hours makes you sedentary, deprives you of rest and cuts into your gym time. This will shorten your life. Even if your boss thinks long hours equal a fat bonus, he may have to think twice in light of the latest research. (No need to thank me.)

My advice to you: When you’re at work, WORK. Don’t chat, flirt or stream videos on the company’s bandwidth. Do your job. (I don’t need to tell you not to make photocopies of your butt, do I?) When it’s quitting time, leave, and try not to take work home with you unless it’s a rare emergency. P.S. Checking work emails is taking work home with you.

In my case, I have a two-hour window from the time I leave work in which I will reply to urgent emails or voice mails that come in. This rule keeps me free to keep work as a part of my life, instead of the other way around.

A few days off?

A vacation sure sounds nice, doesn’t it? If you’re fearful that taking time off will damage your career, science is your friend once again. American Enterprise Institute president Arthur C. Brooks cited a study published by Project: Time-Off (an initiative of the U.S. Travel Association) that found that workers who took all of their allotted vacation time were 6.5% more likely to get a bonus than those who failed to take their vacation days.*

You are aware, aren’t you, that vacation days — like other benefits — are non-cash compensation? They are part of what you earn by working for your employer. So skipping time off not only costs you in terms of the potential for bonuses, you are in a very real sense leaving money on the table. Brooks cites another shocking statistic — in 2013 the number of unused vacation days amounted to over $52 billion. Nobody is going to give you a medal for giving up your vacation. So don’t.

Born to run

There is something in us that causes us to take pride in the work of our hands. This is part of the way we reflect the image of God. But note that in the creation narrative, God Himself set a pattern where He created the cosmos in six days and rested on the seventh. This was enshrined in the Torah, when in commanding Sabbath observance, God appealed to his own deeds in creation.

Work is good. God ordained it for our well-being. But our failure to budget time for repair and rebuilding violates the created order, and is harmful to our health, our relationships and the quality of our output.

The nightly vacation

Which brings us to one other avenue toward the best possible version of yourself — sleep. Strive to get seven-and-a-half hours of sleep every night. Heart specialist Dr. Joel Kahn says that people who average less than six hours of sleep per night have a 33% increased risk of stroke or  heart attack. Now that I’ve told you, I think I’ll go lie down.

So how about you? How can you set up healthy boundaries to maintain your health and effectiveness for the long haul? Add your comments below.

*H/T David Chadwick