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Q. How have you dealt with pressures to work late?

A. When I was a partner in an investment bank, the nature of my position put high demands on my time. After a while, I realized I was spending virtually very night way too late at the office. My wife had a great solution. She suggested I develop a schedule in which I committed to work as late as I needed to one night a week. The other four nights a week I was committed to being home, assuming I wasn't traveling, rather than wondering every night how late I was going to work.

That really helped. It gave my wife dependability. It gave me rest and permission to say no. One concentrated night of working late was hugely productive, as opposed to five nights a week of doing semi-productive work and feeling guilty.

What about vacations?

Early on, we committed to the reality that I'm dispensable. It was okay for me to take all of my vacation. When you're in a senior position, it's so easy to start believing that you really have to be there, that the business can't run without you.

So for rhythm in our family we took one long vacation each year of at least two or three consecutive weeks. Going away like that was actually a vote of confidence in my senior management team.

About once a month, I also would try to take a Friday or Monday off to create a three-day weekend. The commitment was no briefcase or telephone. Sometimes we'd stay at home—with the answering machine on all weekend—and other times we'd go to a play or take a bike trip.

David Miller, a former banker, now deals with business ethics in the Avodah Institute.

Adapted from: Life@Work (7-8/99) by permission.

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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