The EconomistAugust 10th 2019 Business 552
Bartleby Turn off and drop out
Economist.com/blogs/bartlebyT
he swimmingtrunks have been dug
out of the chest of drawers. The beach
shoes (still caked with last year’s sand)
have been retrieved from the shed. Like
tens of millions of others, Bartleby is
about to go on his annual holiday.
A vacation gives workers a chance to
recharge their mental batteries. For
Bartleby, this means reading books that
do not have titles like “Beyond Perfor-
mance 2.0” (sadly, a genuine example of
a management tome). Heading to a new
location allows employees to clear their
thoughts. After all, there is more to life
than spreadsheets and sales forecasts. To
misquote Timothy Leary, the 1960s hip-
pie guru, a holiday is time to “turn off
and drop out”.
It also means workers get more sleep
by escaping the tyranny of the early-
morning alarm. In addition, they no
longer suffer the agonies of the daily
commute: the cramped railway carriages
or gridlocked roads. And best of all, there
are no meetings to endure—no need to
sit with a vaguely interested expression
on your face while time seems to slow to
a crawl. In short, holidays reduce stress.
And in the long run, stress makes work-
ers less likely to perform well.
That means going away for at least a
week. An extended weekend break,
favoured by many Americans, risks
adding to the stress, as a high proportion
of the vacation period is spent travelling
to and from the desired destination. No
sooner do you arrive than you have to
think about packing for the trip back.
Although it does lead to congested
traffic and crowded airports, there is
something to be said for the European
tradition of cramming everyone’s holi-
days into August. The predictability of
the season means that companies can
adjust their plans accordingly. Eventhose people who are in the office can
enjoy an easier pace of life. Most of their
customers and suppliers are on a break so
there is not much that anyone can do.
For those on vacation, the occasional
work-related thought might occur when
walking quietly along the beach, or
through a wood. Often such ideas will be
all the more original for being dreamed up
in a moment of detachment. Returning to
3,000 unread emails is also not an appeal-
ing prospect, so five minutes deleting the
detritus while the rest of the family is in
the shower seems like a reasonable com-
promise. Some favour an “out of office”
message but such devices can easily gener-
ate automated replies that subsequently
clog up the in-box.
The one thing that workers certainly do
not need is contact from their managers.
Answering the phone to a work-related call
should be a complete no-no. Just occasion-
ally, a genuine crisis might require the
company to be in contact. In 2007 Bartleby
was paddling in the Atlantic next to an
analyst from a credit-rating agency receiv-
ing frantic messages on his BlackBerryabout the collapse of the credit system.
But most of the time, executives should
really be able to rely on staff who remain
in the office.
Indeed, just as employees need a
break from the workplace, companies
sometimes need a break from their em-
ployees. After a trading scandal at Société
Générale, a French bank, in 2008, Brit-
ain’s then regulator, the Financial Ser-
vices Authority, recommended that all
traders take a two-week break at some
point in the year. The aim was to ensure
that any unusual dealing patterns would
be discovered while the miscreant was
away from their desk.
Senior managers can also benefit
from seeing what happens when their
juniors head to the beach. Does office
morale improve as soon as a mid-level
manager disappears? If so, this suggests
that he or she is not running the depart-
ment well. Does an underling impress
when standing in for their boss? In that
case, they may be overdue a promotion.
Some Americans are reluctant to take
a long holiday for fear that their employ-
er will find they can easily manage with-
out them. None of that nonsense at The
Economist. Ambitious young writers will
be eager to fill the vacant space left by
this column with insights into the busi-
ness world. The business editor will be
relieved of the need to remove some of
this writer’s questionable puns [much
appreciated, ed.].
Work can be irritating but, as any
unemployed person will tell you, it is
better than the alternative. It gives pur-
pose to people’s days and, on occasion,
can even be fun. But not every day. Some
days it is better to be reading a paper-
back. By a pool, in the sunshine. Enjoy.Holidays are good for both workers and their companiesthe moment of purchase to divestment.
Indeed, rather than fend off kkr’s ad-
vances, Mathias Döpfner, Axel Springer’s
boss, actively sought it out as an investor.
To win employees over to the deal, Mr
Döpfner invited Mr Huth to one of his regu-
lar staff town-halls. Last month Osram, a
struggling maker of lights, said it is fully
behind a €3.4bn takeover bid from Bain
Capital and Carlyle, two American buy-out
behemoths.
German conglomerates have long been
happy to offload unwanted parts to private-
equity companies. Siemens sold its dentis-try-equipment arm to Permira, a British
firm, in 1997. kkr bought Hensoldt from
Airbus. Buy-out firms are also becoming an
important source of capital for the Mittel-
stand, the small and medium-sized compa-
nies that constitute the German economy’s
backbone. Thousands of these enterprises
already have private-equity firms among
their shareholders.
This year 250 private-equity fund man-
agers surveyed by pwc, a consultancy,
named Germany as Europe’s most promis-
ing market by a long way. They are drawn by
its stable politics, skilled workforce andsteady economic growth. Nine in ten told
pwcthat Germany will be interesting for
private-equity investments in the next five
years (one-third as many said the same
about Brexit Britain). Eight out of ten said
they will increase their German holdings.
The number and size of private-equity
deals in Germany are both smaller than in
Britain or America. “The market has ma-
tured but remains relatively uncharted,”
says Steve Roberts, pwc’s head of private
equity in Germany. That leaves more op-
portunities for the cash-rich locusts to
swarm around. 7