Working from home, I have the luxury of observing my pets all day, every day. As co-workers, my dog and two cats have taught me a lot about what I should — and should not — focus on as a worker in my day-to-day grind.
Humans tend to manufacture an air of importance in much of what we do. “No one else can make this presentation as well as I can.” “If we don’t hit this deadline, it’s going to derail everything we’ve been working on.” “This whole place would fall apart without me.” Occasionally, those things may be true, but often it’s all just an exercise in assigning some arbitrary value to the activities that take up a third or more of our lives.
My dog on the other hand? Never even attempted to meet a deadline in his life. The cats? Measure their productivity in hours slept as opposed to assignments completed. Their contributions to this organization are immeasurable and yet their output is minimal. So, what do these loaves have to share? Two lessons stand out that everyone in a workplace setting could stand to embrace.
1. Doing nothing can be stressful too.
My dog is sleeping on the couch. He’s been there for a couple hours. Suddenly, he lifts his head, looks around bleary-eyed, stands and stretches. He curls back up, but not before letting out the most world-weary sigh you’ve ever heard. I ask myself: What does he have to be stressed about? Um, everything. No one else in our household devotes as much time as he does to home security and neighborhood surveillance. It’s almost like we don’t even care. Cleaning up when someone drops food? If it weren’t for him, think of the filth we could be living in.
Sometimes the less we’re accomplishing at work, the more stressed out we can be. Nothing any of us do as professionals is easy, and we shouldn’t ever devalue ourselves by saying it is. There are days when just existing can be exhausting. Don’t ever sell your efforts short just because the outcome may not be obvious at first glance. And don’t assume if you haven’t seen tangible results from your team that they aren’t working. So much of the work we do is little things, and they’re easy to overlook. We could all do a better job recognizing and rewarding the stuff we must do that isn’t glamorous but is still necessary to make the organization go.
2. Force yourself to take breaks.
When one or the other of my cats wanders over, rubs an uncomfortable amount of butt in my face, and then plunks himself down across the keyboard of my laptop, there’s really nothing to do at that point other than pause my work and take a step back.
It’s rare that anything is so pressing that we can’t or shouldn’t walk away from work periodically to grab a snack or stretch our legs. Sometimes we need that in-your-face reminder that it’s OK — even necessary — to take a break.
This goes for longer breaks from work as well. According to a survey from Pew Research Center, only 48% of U.S. workers say they use all their vacation days. Reasons for not taking full advantage of their time off range from concerns about falling behind
at work to worries about burdening their colleagues with extra work, while a few believe that taking vacations might negatively impact their prospects for promotions or even jeopardize their employment status.
Folks, that’s silly. The work will still be there when you get back, but that five minutes or five days you could have taken off to refresh and recharge? Later in life when you’re finally done working, you’re going to realize that’s irreplaceable, just like our pets.
