GIVE ME A BREAK
A Bench Jeweler’s Guide to Taking Breaks
By Brad Simon
When I was a young teenager I was riding my bike around town one afternoon when I came upon the fire department fighting a fire in a church. Although they had been there for a while, the church was engulfed in flames. As I watched the fire, I noticed one fireman who was not working. He was standing next to the fire truck drinking coffee while the church burned to the ground behind him.
That evening at supper I told the story to my family and with righteous indignation stated how terrible our fire department was. If the fireman did their jobs rather than standing around drinking coffee, the church may not have burned down.
I received that night my first lesson in worker productivity. My father patiently explained how he WAS doing his job: how that fireman could have been one of the first to the scene, and after fighting the fire for hours, fatigue could start to set in, which would effect how well he performed his job. Without a break, not only his life, but the lives of the other firemen, could be in jeopardy.
Sometimes the BEST use of our time is to take a break. There comes a point of diminishing returns when you continue to push yourself without taking a break. As we work harder and longer, we become bored and/or tired. We end up slowing down our pace and begin daydreaming which puts us further behind. With the added stress, we become less creative, which hinders our work. Without our creative edge, we often become aggravated, tense, depressed, or annoyed and we accomplish less. We are caught in this negative and unproductive downward spiral. Our work feels like running on a treadmill. We work harder and harder but never seem to get anywhere. A break from our work stops the downward spiral and allows us to get off the treadmill.
CHILDHOOD TRAINING
“You can’t go out to play until all your chores are done!” I’m sure most of us were told that while growing up. Many of us learned it so well that we not only told it to our children, but we have also carried this rule with us to work, and now it is difficult to ‘play’ because our work never seems to be finished. As adults we find that the more we accomplish, the more there is to do - There Is No Such Thing as Getting ALL Your Work Done! Instead of thinking ‘You can’t play until you get all your work done’ we need to change our thinking to something like: ‘You can’t take a break until you finish this group of work.’ Or ‘Unless you take a break to refresh yourself, you’ll NEVER get your work done!’
I DON’T HAVE TIME
It was said that Martin Luther got up early each morning to pray for an hour before starting his day’s activities. The only exception to his routine was on days he was particularly busy. On those days he prayed for TWO hours! “The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it” says consultant Sydney Harris. The days we feel like we don’t have time to take a break are the days we need them the most. In the long run, a short diversion from your work will renew and invigorate you, and you’ll be more productive and creative during the time you are working.
By taking a break we refresh our body and revitalize our mind. Studies show that taking a break every 50 to 90 minutes actually increases productivity and creativity. However, most bench jewelers do not use this valuable resource properly.
BREAK MISUSE
Breaks do not have to be long to be effective. Just getting up and stretching or going to the sink to wash your hands and face can be invigorating, and effective, in giving our minds a change of pace, and it only takes a minute or two. However in many shops, breaks by the jewelers are excessive and detrimental to the productivity of the shop. Rather than a short refreshing break, many jewelers waste away hours a day socializing and daydreaming. A balance needs to be maintained. A change of pace is needed to maintain productivity but long excessive breaks need to be eliminated or at least reduced.
We need to be careful that taking breaks during our work day does not lead to developing a work schedule like the signs you can buy in the tourist souvenir shops: 8:00 Arrive at Work, 8:05 to 10:05 Coffee Break, 10:05 to 10:10 Work, 10:10 to 11:55 Morning Break, 11:55 to 12:00 Work, 12:00 to 2:00 Lunch, etc. etc.
Many times we do not plan a schedule like this but we stop to talk with a co-worker about last night’s ballgame, a movie we’ve seen, or to share some juicy gossip about a mutual acquaintance. Before we know it, we have wasted half an hour or more. Or the mail comes and there is a new catalog from a supplier and we sit down to look through it, daydreaming of all the new equipment we would like to have, and soon 45 minutes are gone. Now, socializing with co-workers and planning the future of the business are all important things to do. However, when they become excessive and keep us from finishing our work, it adversely affects our productivity rather than refreshing us.