by Carol Hurst, LVT
When you’re first promoted or hired into that veterinary management position, everything is new and shiny. You work hard and long, and you sparkle with the effort you put forth. You devour every article you can get your hands on and try to practically apply them immediately. Your energy is limitless because you know that you are making a difference every single hour of every single day.
What happens when that ends? To have the enthusiasm of a new manager and the wisdom of an experienced manager would be the ultimate combination. As of now, that isn’t possible. Just like most other fields, compassion fatigue and burnout can strike even the noblest of hearts. You know the symptoms: little things start to bother where they didn’t before, your “best” isn’t as good as it once was, you start to count down the minutes until it’s time to go and you may skip out on those articles because thinking about anything work-related is just unbearable, among many other varied symptoms.
What can you do to help bring that spark back? It doesn’t mean you are a bad manager or even that you shouldn’t be in veterinary management. It just means that it’s a tough job and it’s all too easy to be overwhelmed if you aren’t taking care of yourself (which most managers don’t). Here are a few tips to help cope:
Start a Local Managers’ Group
This may sound daunting or a lot of work but it really doesn’t have to be. If you log on to www.vhma.org they have a list of current management groups that have assembled. Don’t see one in your area that you can start from? Then start your own! It’s okay, you can start small.
- Write down a few goals that you want out of your manager group (support system, friendly swap of ideas, camaraderie) and what you don’t want to have happen (service pricing exchanges, unproductive venting/gossiping) so that you have a framework to start the conversation with your area managers.
- Think of possible locations: is there a restaurant that you love who has a back room or large table? Do you have a larger conference/meeting room? For me, this is a lesser concern because even if you don’t have ideas, other people might.
- Do a simple Google search for clinics in your area. Call between 5-10 clinics (or more) and find out which managers would like to start a manager group. You can start a Facebook group to keep track of everyone or a Yahoo! group for bulk emails.
- Use your Facebook Group or Yahoo! Groups to coordinate when would be a good time for everyone to meet. I’ve found that picking one day of the week (like the last Wednesday of every month) seems to be easy to plan around and keep consistent.
- You can look on www.VHMA.org for meeting ideas, but also pull from what you’re currently struggling with or what your group is currently struggling with (HR issues, OSHA regulations, Inventory Management) – the list goes on and on.
The benefits to this can be monumental. Being in a veterinary management position means that there are very few people who relate to the everyday struggles. Sometimes just being in a room with people who are under the same pressures can help to put things into perspective.
Attend a Conference for Your Professional Growth and Development
It’s not a tropical vacation but whenever I attend a conference (even if it’s a two-day conference), I always feel refreshed and invigorated. I think that it helps to turn some of the focus from little nit-picking details that don’t matter in the grand scheme of things into a more big picture kind of perspective.
- If you don’t have some sort of CE allowance through your clinic, prepare your case for getting some.
- Look on some of the large industry sites (AAHA, VHMA, AVMA, etc) for their annual conferences and then talk to your Reps about anything management related they may know about or be putting on.
- Obtain a schedule for those conferences so that you can see what kinds of presentations they are going to have.
- Break down the ones that you would benefit from and ways that you can use the information to benefit your clinic. Even talk about follow-through with a staff meeting presentation on some of the information that you are going to learn.
- Evaluate the costs and be realistic. It is wonderful if your clinic will pay for everything, but if your boss balks at the cost of conference + hotel + gas or airplane ticket, look into your own budget to see how much you can contribute. I do believe that you have to be willing to invest a certain amount in your own education.
- Make the pitch!
- Make it happen. The clinic will survive without you for 2-4 days.
Focus on Your Work-Life Balance
For some reason, no one likes this one. It seems to be a badge of honor that we wear to work ourselves to death. I am all about having a strong balance because ultimately it will make you a better manager.
- Take stock of your home life and work life. This includes evaluating areas such as: family, work, spiritual, hobbies, health, community, social and rating these (or self-chosen) areas on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being no investment and 5 being full investment.
- Once you’ve identified those areas that need improvement, start small. It won’t be easy to make changes to 4 different areas at once. Pick one that’s most important to you.
- Brainstorm some ways that you can make improvements that will be a compromise. An example is if you want to have more investment with your family and dinner-time is one area that you would love to see improved. Dinner time peace is always shattered by calls from the clinic – most of which could be solved without your helpful hand. What protocols or training do you need to implement to make calls at home more productive. Remember, only you can improve those areas of your life that are out of balance.
Carol Hurst is a Licensed Veterinary Technician and Practice Manager at ABC Animal and Bird Clinic in Sugarland, Texas. Her professional interests include dog behavior and nutrition, client education, team communication training and expanding her team building management skills. At home, she enjoys reading, volunteering with the boxer rescue, running a pet-related blog, and participating in community, pet-related fund raisers.