The Practitioner: No post-holiday blues

A CHANGE is as good as holiday, but a three-month trip around the world doesn’t leave you with much change at all.

Back in the office, with a totally different perspective on things, everything seems calmer. Staff are more relaxed and seem more confident. Client queries seem like very minor specks on a snow topped mountain in the Alps and not the irritant they used to be.

Doctor’s orders to take some time away from things has certainly done the trick.
The Senior Manager who stepped in to the breach, together with the interim partner hired from a recruitment agency, have kept the ship afloat very well indeed.

I asked myself the question many times of course whilst travelling, do I want to be as involved as I used to be again, or do I want to take a step back and work less hours and have less stress?

Back in the familiar surroundings of the office the answer is a definite Yes! – to the former.

I am ready to throw myself back into it and take up the reins again. For all the moaning and complaining about clients and staff, I have realised that I love it too much to give it up, I would miss the day to day involvement with clients, miss training up good, young, enthusiastic staff and seeing them progress, and of course I would miss being The Practitioner.

I obviously kept myself up to speed with emails and newsletters while away, and still had contact with key clients. It’s a wonderful thing this internet isn’t it??

In my first week back one of the first things I did was dismiss a member of staff. No probation, no written warnings, no notice period. I did pay her holiday pay and a full months salary however. I’m not totally unreasonable.

I became sure she had to go by checking my emails from the team while on my travels. It became apparent that she was slacking from her duties, upsetting clients by making mistakes and not delivering on deadlines, and just by showing a general lack of care.

The worst thing for me was that she never said sorry. Not once.

We all mistakes, but it is how we react to them that counts. I say sorry a couple of times a week at least.

I’m not sorry I’m back though and I’m certainly not sorry she has gone.

Holiday anyone?

The Practitioner’s uncensored thoughts come from within their own practice – having left a regional firm in the heart of England