As you can tell by the update we put out this week, we have been quite busy at Avalon Labs.  Not only do we constantly monitor our own help forums for suggestions to improve the site, we’re constantly trying out new ideas in house and/or bouncing ideas off Fellowstream customers we know “in real life.”  Creating a new software product on the web is a constant cycle of brainstorming, implementing, and determining new problems.  There is no final stage of this product.  We’ve been working on it for over a year now, and it will change as long as we continue to refine it, which we foresee happening for a long, long time.

A year, though, is a long time to go without a break.   I do want to say that we strongly believe in work-life balance.  That means if a developer spends 50 hours one week trying to make a deadline, he’ll often work only 30 or 35 hours the next week.  We allow days off for just being tired.  Still, we have been known to bust in hours until 10 pm on a Sunday night tweaking and re-working things, and we’ve been doing that since November 2009.

So for Jacob and I at least, it was time to take a break.  Despite the fact that we planned an update for the end of September (which got pushed to October), despite the fact that I have a billion marketing tasks on my plate, despite the fact that we had more users than ever at the end of the month, we decided to go on a much needed, real vacation (not just a weekend).

And I’m so glad we did.

And seriously, who wouldn’t be glad having this view outside your B&B window?

Jacob and I ended up spending 4 days in England and 5 days in Scotland.  Jacob has never traveled abroad, and I’ve never been to Europe.  I got to explore famous historical places I’d only dreamed about.  Jacob got in touch with his grandmother’s clan MacLeod roots.  For 3 days of that 10, we were also completely cut off from the Internet.  Someone else held the reigns while we unwound and simply enjoyed going on an adventure.

Now that we’re back at work, we’re more fired up than ever to work on Fellowstream.  It only took Jacob a few days to round out the last few bugs and polish the update to get it out the door, something that would have probably taken him a week as tired as he was before the vacation.  I’m also refreshed too.  I find myself able to tackle tasks faster and I’m coming up with better viral marketing ideas.  The break allowed us to reboot in ways we didn’t imagine.  Before the trip, I was so tired of thinking about Fellowstream.  Now, I can’t wait to get back to tweaking some of my initial marketing campaigns and try out some new ideas.

Oftentimes, we discourage employees from taking long breaks.  We give people a day off here and there, or make them wait until Christmas.  Consider, though, that a week-long break can sometimes be just the thing for turning a tired employee back into someone geared up and ready to go.

-Deborah Fike

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