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Stuart Revercomb

Stuart Revercomb is a marketing consultant and joyously married father of four children. He seems to remember someone once telling him he ought to be a writer. "The Unseen Here and Now" -- Thursdays.

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July 12, 2001

Take A Break

Every now and then we all need a break.

I for one have little problem with this rule. In fact I think I may excel at it. Whenever I am invited on any sort of outing or "vacation like junket", I tend to say yes immediately and with conviction.

"Hey Stu, some of the guys were thinking about..."

‘I'm in. Let me know the details when you work them out..."

Lest you think I do this often at the expense of family obligations let it be known that my wife and I excel at it as well. The children have come to expect 2 separate week long family vacations a year - 1 in the summer and 1 in the winter - with several weekend sorties usually scheduled in-between.

There are 2 primary reasons for keeping up a good vacation schedule. Let us explore them.

A. You never know when you are going to die.

B. The occasional break allows you to work effectively and creatively.

We all know the quintessential workaholic - the guy that says he needs no break or can't afford the time to take one. These folks are usually your boss, as they have worked so hard for so many straight hours, days, weeks and years that their superiors had little choice but to promote them. They in turn have promoted others that are cut from the same cloth and thus the vicious cycle of non-stop, hard working, guilt inducing bosses continues to this day.

When questioned why they haven't taken any sort of vacation in 27 years, these individuals have a tendency to quote the "Protestant Work Ethic". That great ethic of Western Civilization that was in fact a ploy by Martin Luther to get some labor out of several close friends. It seems Martin felt they were hanging out at Monasteries to avoid the good hard work of the Reformation. Truth be known, these "Monks of convenience" would have performed the most difficult of tasks if it meant they didn't have to be seen with Luther himself, which most considered to be a risky proposition at best.

As we all know Martin Luther somehow kept his head and torso connected, and while his work turned out to have some fairly significant long term implications, we have nevertheless had to live with the overzealous interpretation of his reformed theology by slave driving bosses ever since.

But even if you don't work for such a taskmaster, chances are you're enjoying less vacation time than your Grandfather did. The goal of technology and "progress" used to be to free man from the burden of "unnecessary labor" - that we might have more time for one another and the "more meaningful pursuits in life". But the reality is that technological innovation has not freed up the lives of the average worker so much as it has sped up his production. Such "advances"seem to bring with it a human desire to produce more and more, and far too often we find ourselves locked in a spiral of longer hours that provide less and less of the truly "meaningful minutes".

But as a wise man once said in my presence : "Any damn fool can work himself to death."

In another one of those strange ironies that are so prevalent in "the real world", the Germans have apparently become the first to figure this out. Known as a people of great industry, efficiency and passion for work, (It's no real surprise that Luther was German), the Federal Republic of Germany has adopted the most liberal and worker friendly labor laws of any country in the Western Hemisphere.

In Germany all employees are required to take at least 6 weeks of vacation. In most small to medium sized towns and in suburban areas of large cities, only "essential businesses" are allowed to be open on weekends. There is even legislation that requires a minimum amount of windows and open space for factories and offices based on the amount of employees and the total square footage of the building. Which is why modern German corporate and public facilities are among the most beautiful in the world today.

Both the German and international companies that were present in Germany when this legislation was being considered and implemented fought such regulations vehemently. Nothing but doom and gloom was forecast for a country that would adopt such practices. I wouldn't be surprised if Luther himself wasn't quoted in support of the status quo that might better make a Buck - or a German Mark as the case happened to be.

If they had only known.

The most vibrant and fastest growing economy in the world today?

One hint : It's not the U.S.

So heres to the "Protestant" work ethic. The one that reminds us that "good works" in the name of the Father are the natural outpouring of the man or women who has come to know that God loves us beyond our imagining - and that a time of rest is as essential to our work as faith is to the "good works" that are its ultimate testimony.

Which I believe was pretty much what Luther was trying to tell us all along - you just can't have one without the other.