Members of the seed industry strive for work-life balance. But can such a balance truly be achieved?
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You might say Peter Entz is a busy guy. The assistant vice-president of seed and trade for Richardson International keeps a schedule that often sees him working long hours and travelling a great deal. His responsibilities take him across Western Canada._x000D_
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Germination recently caught up with Entz on a Friday in July, during the so-called busy season when he’s kept hopping._x000D_
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“Wednesday night we had a function with some key customers. It was at our Kelburn Farm south of Winnipeg, and it went until about 10 p.m. I caught a 5:40 a.m. flight to Saskatoon, drove north to view seed plots, got home late that same night, and then this morning I had to go back to the office and catch up on things. Now I’m back at our research farm going through plots and seeing how it’s all going,” he says, with a hint of fatigue in his voice._x000D_
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Entz, 56, is one of thousands employed in the Canadian seed industry — a sector known for being extremely busy during the annual planting and harvest. According to statistics from the Canadian Seed Trade Association, more than 14,000 Canadians are employed in the seed industry._x000D_
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A study conducted by the George Morris Centre in 2013 estimated the total economic impact (direct and indirect) of the seed industry to be $5.61 billion. The sector’s estimated contribution to Canada’s GDP is about $2.5 billion._x000D_
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And it’s the people working in the industry that keep it all going, at a time when technology dominates our lives like never before and workplace stress is high._x000D_
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According to Statistics Canada, more than one in four Canadian workers describe their day-to-day lives as highly stressful. Persistently high levels of stress among such a large share of the workforce present a challenge to both employers and to the health care system, the research notes._x000D_
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People who identified their job or workplace as their main source of stress were well educated — almost three-quarters had a college or university education — and more than one-half held white-collar jobs in management, professional or technical occupations. Like seed._x000D_
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“Some parts of the year it is just very, very busy. There’s annual meetings, tours, a lot happening. In the ag industry, you only have 100 days in the summer to watch crops grow. A lot rides on that,” Entz adds._x000D_
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David Hansen agrees. He’s president and chief executive officer for Manitoba’s CANTERRA SEEDS. At 57, Hansen has been in the industry for several decades, and been forced to learn how to cope with stress during that time._x000D_
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“We’ve all had that experience of saying yes when we probably should have said no, and you end up disappointing somebody or yourself,” Hansen says. “Seed is cyclical. I often say it gets busy around the first of January and stays that way until the end of December._x000D_
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“I say that a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the fact is you’re always busy.”_x000D_
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Work-Life Balance_x000D_
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Whenever discussions about job stress come about, the concept of work-life balance inevitably comes up as well. As a concept, it’s become popular enough to earn its own Wikipedia page, and is the subject of countless self-help books. The Canadian Mental Health Association dedicates an entire section of its website to work-life balance._x000D_
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U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is often quoted as having said, “Don’t confuse having a career with having a life.”_x000D_
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The idea of work-life balance is nothing new, and can be traced back to the 1800s and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. And who doesn’t remember being taught by their parents that “work before play” is an important philosophy?_x000D_
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Toronto-based certified professional life coach and personal business coach Guy Reichard works with countless people looking to create more meaning and fulfillment in their lives, and the issue of work-life balance comes up a lot._x000D_
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“We get really involved in our career and build a lifestyle based on it. And then people start families, and depending on their income, there’s a particular type of house they want, activities for the kids, and they think they have to work so hard to maintain this lifestyle and they’re trying to find balance,” he says._x000D_
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“But what does that mean? Devoting 12 hours a day to work, including getting up, commuting, coming home, eating dinner, maybe doing an exercise program of some sort, and sleep for six to eight hours? And you’re somehow going to squeeze all aspects of your personal life into those couple remaining hours? That struggle is very common, and how it affects people and how it’s addressed is very unique to the individual.”_x000D_
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In fact, Reichard credits agriculture as the origin of the modern day challenge of balancing work and life._x000D_
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“Our way of living changed when we started to develop agriculture and villages, which became towns and cities, and we started getting jobs where we provided a specific function rather than just being a part of the tribe or group. We evolved, but it’s created this situation where we’re always busy and we’re becoming chained to the technology we’ve created, and now we need to develop ways to deal with that in a healthy manner.”_x000D_
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Coping_x000D_
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Entz has had to develop strategies for coping with the demands of working in the seed industry, where summer is often extremely hectic._x000D_
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“I used to try to take a week of holidays in July and one in August. In July I was so busy and so preoccupied, my wife finally said, ‘Why are you taking holidays in July? Your mind is on so many other things. Just forget about it. Take your holidays in August when things slow down a bit,’” he says. “I shifted my holidays to a couple weeks in August. Things are a bit slower then. That was a small move, but made life a lot easier.”_x000D_
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Another tactic he’s implemented is to avoid working on weekends, something he admits he’s not perfect at, but which has been “reasonably” successful._x000D_
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Hansen agrees that managing energy, not just time, is key._x000D_
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“It’s important for me to set some goals and objectives for that day. What are the things I’d like to do, should do and must do, and organize myself that way,” he says. “We all need to have other diversions from work, and that can be family, sports, other forms of distraction and relaxation. It helps business because it allows you to stay fresh and energized.”_x000D_
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Putting Limits on Technology_x000D_
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For both Hansen and Entz, turning off the gadgets once in awhile is key._x000D_
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“The use of technology has not reduced people’s workload at all. It’s probably increased it to a degree. You’re almost on call with that, especially during harvest. One thing you need to do is recognize you’re not an open-heart surgeon. You don’t have to be on call 24/7. You have to have that discipline to shut your phone off, put it away, and not have it rule your life,” Entz says._x000D_
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“We’re all committed to our iPhones and Blackberries and with that comes expectations. We don’t give ourselves enough of a break by turning it off,” Hansen adds. “We’ve got tools that we’ve never had before, and we have to make them work for us, not us work for them.”_x000D_
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Mastering technology is an issue Reichard sees more and more in the age of the Internet and smartphones._x000D_
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“I have a client who’s very successful, who shuts the phone off at 5 p.m. No calls, emails, or texts. Those are handled in the morning. I often see people who are tired of working 12 hours a day and answering the phone after 6 p.m. and working on the weekend.”_x000D_
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A False Quest?_x000D_
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For Hansen, the challenge isn’t so much striking a balance between work and life, but integrating them as best as possible._x000D_
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“It can’t always be a utopia of perfect balance — sometimes it means you have to work longer hours than you want, and sometimes it means circling a personal commitment on the calendar and staying committed to that,” Hansen says. Over the years, he’s dealt with the challenges of working in seed and raising two daughters with his wife, Gayle._x000D_
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“For years, my wife was very much the backbone with respect to the day-to-day activities with our family. I spent a lot of time driving and travelling across the Prairies, and when there’s children at home, that’s a big challenge. Those are the realities of business and the demands that come with these jobs. It’s not always a pretty picture, but it’s the reality.”_x000D_
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Being married with four children, Entz has learned to listen to his family — including wife Sandy — who he says are a “really good barometer in terms of how you’re scoring with your work and personal life. We all love what we do in ag, and when you love what you do, you’re OK spending a lot of time doing it. You just have to make sure you’re not neglecting other areas of your life.”_x000D_
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Calling into question the validity of the work-life balance concept is something Reichard actually encourages his clients to do._x000D_
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“I don’t know if it’s possible at all to balance those two things. What we all deal with every day is a very complex life-balancing act. Work is a part of our life, it’s not something we can separate from everything else. I worry that people might be chasing something that doesn’t exist, a static state where everything is controlled and in harmony at all times and they think balance is about giving equal time to their work and personal lives, but it’s not,” he says._x000D_
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“When I work with people, I don’t just coach them about work-life balance. It’s often about creating a more meaningful life, a life with more purpose, career transitions, personal growth in general.”_x000D_
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Some people, he says, choose to “get off the treadmill” and find a new job that is less busy and stressful. Others are OK with their work and simply need to set more boundaries at the office and learn to say no._x000D_
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Others, he says, are career-driven and don’t mind sacrificing some family time for their work. The point, Reichard says, is that there’s no blanket prescription for everyone trying to meet the demands of work and family life._x000D_
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“The world has changed, and in agriculture, things have changed too,” he says. “There’s a lot of technology and machinery and industry involved now. And the thing is, industry_x000D_
is learning what brings out the best in people._x000D_
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“More and more companies really honour the people working for them, and they help them create different structures and schedules so their people are happy and healthy and fulfilled._x000D_
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“If we want more balance in our lives, we need to question ourselves, how we’re living and how we view the world and then challenge ourselves to carve out ways of honouring our values and needs, even in small ways.”_x000D_
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Germination Behind-the-Scenes
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Germination wanted to convey the struggle many in the industry deal with trying to strike a balance between life and work. Here, we take you behind-the-scenes of the making our September cover.
