Kate Spirgen Occupational Overload Summary

The author of “Occupational Overload” is Kate Spirgen. This article starts out on page 40 of the September issue of Lawn & Landscape and ends on page 60. This article is consisted of a compilation of bits and pieces of information that landscape company owners gave about work/life balance, stress, seeking good employees, dealing with the unknowns of owning a business, and how a growing business equates to more responsibility. I was surprised to learn in this article that roughly 68% of the landscape companies have been in business for more than 10 years. This comes from a pool of 500 companies that Lawn & Landscape interviewed throughout the years. This was surprising to me, because I learned in several of my business classes that 96% of new
businesses fail within the first 10 years. Reading this article solidified my preconceived notion that owning my own business is something I should steer clear of. Having grown up in a family where my father started his technology business over 30 years ago, I’ve got to see what owning a business can do to a family and the owner of a business. Copious amounts of stress come into play when you are dealing both with the livelihood of yourself and family, along with the lives of your employees. What I was able to conclude from some of the landscape owners in this article was, once the company got on its feet and rolling forward, it was hard to ever slow down. I am very in tune when it comes to my emotional quotient, or emotional intelligence, thus I don’t think it would be in my best interest to try to own my own business. There are all sorts of people who are wired in a way that running their own business may be great for them, but as for me, I think it would be a nightmare. This article showed me how so many of the business owners in the landscape industry are overly stressed, have a brutal work and life balance, and how it’s hard to get off the pattern of working excessively.