TAKE A YEAR OFF?

It is just a matter of taking the plunge and doing it“

In 2003 we felt ripe for our “Holiday-of-a-Lifetime“ and we made it. Our reasons? Well, life is short and to quote Mallory’s saying, “Because it’s there”. Besides, not everyone lives until pension-day and many who do are just too worn out to be able to fully enjoy the freedom by then. With a little forward planning most dentists can “Seize the Moment” by taking a full calendar-year off. You may become particularly optimistic after taking into account possible tax-advantages! We decided not to employ an unsupervised locum dentist as we were yearning for a real holiday. Unfortunately shutting our clinic made our staff redundant for twelve months, but this is of course also an opening for them to travel and explore new work opportunities.

The “Story” of our one year long holiday…

Our patients prompted us to tell our “story”, and one in particular thought that it was such a healthy idea to take a proper break that she suggested we should share it around “… I’m sure many of your colleagues would love to hear about it; you should post the story in one of your professional newsletters….”, she said .

Preparations before the Big Plunge…

Once the decision was made several important considerations are necessary.

- Inform your Staff several months ahead. As it turned out some chose to stay on till the closing date, whilst others decided to move on elsewhere and so we ended up employing some short term staff for about five months.

- Inform your patients at least a few months ahead. Sending out a patient-letter in good time means they have an opportunity to come in for their check up and treatment before you leave. Still, certain patients did leave it to the last few weeks and did we get busy?! So, be prepared for a strong onslaught before you can get away. A little “white lie” may be very helpful for everyone, like nominating a “Official Last Day“, and then at the last moment pull out another week from your hat before you really fly away.

-We explained to our patients what our plans were for our break, and what we wanted to do with our time.. We found that many patients became very interested and looked forward to hearing all about our holiday upon our return.

Most importantly, we reassured them of our return date, and provided them with a list of dentists who agreed to see them during our absence. We highly recommend that you arrange with several colleagues who may be happy to provide necessary emergency care for your patients during the twelve months closure. List these dentists with phone and address details in the patient mail-out. Some patients even nominated where they wanted the records to be forwarded to in advance. We also took the opportunity to include a questionnaire in the mail-out, -requesting all patients to fill in their likes and dislikes in the way our practice was operating, and what improvements they may want to see in the future.

Tax Advantages?? Think Taxdays and Holidays year

Be sure NOT to take a whole year off over the same time as a full tax year! The advantage with splitting the holiday year into two tax years is obvious. In actual fact we found that we were so busy seeing patients before we close (at the calendar year end) with accounts receivable still keeping coming in over the following few months that our income for that first tax year far exceeded what we had expected. We also minimised expenses trying to run our stock down to a minimum. Much material would otherwise simply expire.

Coming back to work things were very different. Gone were the days with cheques in the mail every day. Also we had severely increased expenses for getting the surgery cupboards re-stocked with fresh consumables ready for our return, plus new equipment and extra refurbishments and some painting. Oh yes, we still remember the computer network cable-guys. It is wise to plan for this slight time-lag before surgery income returns to normal again. Yes, our tax return for the second Holiday Tax Year reflected less profit than we had wished for. So in light of this we think that a more effective “overlap” between tax-year and holiday-year is to close after 4-5 months into the first tax year and return for 7-8 months of work in the following tax year. In short, go away between October/November and return the following October/November. It may also be an advantage to have the upcoming “Silly Season” to look forward to if the return feels like a shock to the system.

How did we manage economically?

Much better than expected! Sure, we had the usual back up—savings, credit accounts (and the bank does not need to know that you are not working too much), etc. It’s surprising how one can cut down on living costs when one lives and enjoys the simpler pleasures of life. We had as an alternative contingency plan to go and work as a locum in some exotic location such as Christmas Island or Darwin or even the far north of Europe to provide some bridging income. As it turned out we easily managed without that. It is comforting to realise that the real asset for us dentists always stays with us as long as we have our hands attached to our arms, and our eye-sight is good enough to read the palms nice and clearly! Just think what those pair of gloved hands can do…

By the way, this was probably the most enlightening knowledge we found, ie. how much you really work just to pay the bills and consequently how little money you really need when the usual expenses take leave as well.

How we ended up spending our year…

As most of you would be aware, it can take many weeks to unwind and get used to being on holiday. For us we were glad to have the opportunity to immediately leave our practice and jump aboard an airplane and take ourselves overseas. We went to Viet Nam to do some voluntary dentistry with a fantastic Ozzie dental team in the remote countryside by the Mekong River. For those of you who may be interested, see our link-page re. Working in Vietnam.

The best thing upon our return to Australia was knowing that we still had many months ahead for doing nothing except to relax, enjoy life and to rejuvenate our health. We spent weeks travelling thousands of kilometres by car within Australia visiting far-flung communities many with strange exotic names. Australia is truly a vast and breathtakingly beautiful country. Watching a perfect sunset over the red desert horizon with just a few drowsy crows for company is simply indescribable. The colours are intense and a sound seems to carry in a unique way. Not surprisingly, the caravan parks these days are full of “Grey Nomads“, many who travel in style, some using fantastic ‘rigs“ fitted with all luxuries imaginable.

We explored Australian contrasts by sailing with friends in the Whitsunday archipelago and on Port Phillip Bay and still found some time for close family and friends, some visiting from overseas. Over time we slowed right down and we smelled the roses!!
Did we get to do all we wanted to do? Of course we did not. The year passed very quickly. The only regret we have is that we did not do this five years ago. However, one thing for sure, we know we can do it and we will do it again in the not too distant future. Maybe in another four or five years?

Did we lose many patients?

The question most asked by our colleagues and friends: Did we lose patients…
The answer is yes. We are grateful to see so many of our dear favourite patients return, and amongst the ones that we lost, miraculously we don’t seem to miss them much. A win-win outcome and a magical surgery cleansing.! Many patients patiently waited and were obviously looking forward to our return. Some waiting with problems rather than seeing someone else. Many were curious to hear about our exotic adventures during our break. We were especially busy the first few weeks. Someone claimed that there are really just three patient types! They are “Dog patients” and “Cat patients” and “Rat patients” and according to this theory, the first category will follow the doctor anywhere, the second category will always return to the same door, and the third patient category is completely unpredictable. We feel that we lost almost all the “rats in our ranks” so to speak.
Our staff who returned shared with us their experiences and wisdom gained from working elsewhere. Coming back we had no time to feel rusty at all, much like you never seem to forget how to ride a bike or to swim.

Conclusions…

We came back rejuvenated feeling that the benefits were enormous. We also realised that many fears we had were completely imaginary. We had a great opportunity to reflect on our careers and what we had been doing for so many years. It also gave us the opportunity to evaluate our surgery design so that we could return to a much improved work environment. We encourage those who are contemplating to take the plunge to do it whilst still young and energetic both at heart and at mind.

Some points to consider:

- Do it now before it may be too late. Life is too short to just let go by

- You may take the opportunity to upgrade your surgery or/and your training

- Consider taking a job interstate or overseas to get a fresh perspective on you current career situation

- Listen to your awakening inner voice and realise that it is possible to make significant changes to your life

- Do not worry about your patients on your holiday or in your grave

- Any questions? Don’t hesitate to ask! Email to info@norlindetal.com