Here’s the deal: I don’t like working in the summer. Here in the Pacific Northwest, summer lasts three months. Those three months make the other nine months totally worth it (really) but I need to figure out how to better align my work flow with that since it always seems to be very busy during the summer too. My wife has it all figured out. She doesn’t get busy until after Labor day and weather after Labor day is a crapshoot here.
My plan seems easy enough. Simply align myself with a business that centers its busiest time of year around the winter months. So I was trying to brainstorm what those sorts of businesses would be and I was thinking retail and whatever other seasonal stuff happens. But then it hit me:
New Year’s Resolutions!
It is perfect. You spend the three months of fall on preparation. The three months of winter are busy as people adopt and subsequently give up their resolutions. The three months of spring you wrap up things and you switch it into autopilot for summer. Most people give up their resolutions within 30-90 days so it works out well from a business perspective.
The most popular New Year’s resolutions (according to USA.gov) include:
- Lose Weight/Get Fit
- Manage Debt
- Save Money
- Get a Better Job/Education
- Quit Smoking/Drink Less Alcohol
- Reduce Stress at Work/Overall
- Take a Trip
- Volunteer to Help Others
So who is with me? Let’s figure this out.
January 13, 2010 at 8:21 am
Definitely with you! I don’t mind working in the winter when it’s cold, wet, and dark going to and leaving from work. No work summers should probably be a law. Petition? Facebook group?
January 13, 2010 at 8:46 am
I with you Lance. I’m a cyclist so there’s not much happening for me during the short cold winter days. As a company, we’ve shifted to putting in long hours though the winter months, shipping and supporting our major annual time clock software release each January when businesses are thinking about and implementing employee time and attendance systems (Watch for Virtual TimeClock ’1o next week!)
Our work rhythm allows us great flexibility for shorter work days and vacations during our slower summer months. It’d be grand to one day take extended periods off to ride during the summer months!
January 13, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Come on down to the world of academia…not only am I “off” from mid-May until the end of August, but I am also “off” from mid-December to the end of January. You want the summers off (plus a winter break, and a spring), this kind of job fits the bill.
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January 20, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Why should anyone oblige you to work when you don’t like to? Except in certain jobs (hospitals, teaching, busdriving..) everyone should be payed for the outcome of his/her work and not for the amount of hours that he/she is present at the workplace. In the futur we wil need more management en HR-practices that evaluate people on results !