On 12 July BEVA held its first ‘BEVA Unbridled’ online event, where four panellists spoke openly and honestly about their experiences of work-life balance as equine vets:
1. Lorna Brokenshire-Dyke: Ambulatory vet, equine physiotherapist, masters student, mum of twins including a child with a disability, shares her thoughts on juggling the work-life balance in equine practice.
2. Spike Milligan: Performance horse consultant talks to us about how he works as an integral part of his clients' teams alongside raising a family.
3. Natalie McGoldrick: Sole practitioner and 4* level event rider discusses how she manages equine practice alongside her string of competition horses.
4. Ian Beamish: Lambourn vet and father-of-three looks at how he balances the demands of racing work with home life.
The informal, evening event brought up discussions about the needs and wants of students and new grads, and how they change over time as life evolves throughout adulthood. Whether it is family or hobbies, illness or parallel careers, there is sometimes a need to change the pattern within which you work to fit around other threads and other people’s fabrics. There is, as always, rarely any rights or wrongs. What became clear from the proceedings was that everybody has their own desires and their own perspectives. Veterinary work mostly involves working in teams, or for someone else’s business, whereby there is a requirement and the needs of others, which must be met. It is the responsibility of all involved to arrive somewhere in the middle, and this involve communication.
A strong take home message, which applies to everyone, not just vets, is to determine what you want. Each individual has a responsibility to themselves to work out what they want during the course of their life. It will likely change and adapt with age, but that focus on a goal belongs solely with the individual. What was clear from the panellists is a realisation that they wanted something, and their ability to determine ways to achieve those goals. Then they could create a career which worked for them and those around them. That feeling of having an aim, a purpose and autonomy over one’s future is not often there from day one, and this is not a failure. Conversely, it is how life often works. You are unlikely to know what you want, or what is realistically achievable until you have the experience required to own that knowledge. That applies to life but also work.
As members of the profession who had found a work-life balance that was working for them at this point, the panel were in all in the unsurprising position of being in the middle of their careers. While this was by no means intentional, it was likely a product of the fact that it took time for those people to get to this point of satisfaction. They all had stories to tell of mistakes, failures, periods of uncertainty, which most of the audience could relate to. But for those looking forwards from the start of their careers, it might have appeared that there were a panel of people who had fallen on their feet. The truth is, that while thy may have appeared privileged in many ways, with health, wealth and support from those around them, they were largely only where they were because they had utilised their strengths, skills and the resources they had around them to create a career path that worked for them. Success is often born out of hard work and good fortune, but some people create their good fortune by taking and making opportunities for themselves.
None of this is to say that those who are feeling at a low place in their career or are struggling with the cards life has dealt them are in a hopeless place. But it is to say that often people have not had the walk in the park that it might seem, and there is a benefit to avoiding the one up- and one down-manship that is so easily felt by those of a competitive nature (which most academic, vet school candidate types are!). If one can concentrate on their own lot and by all means admire what others achieve but remind oneself that they are unique themselves and capable of different achievements rather than comparable achievements, there might be a greater level of satisfaction felt by some coming up and moving through their veterinary careers.
Practices and those who own and run them, of course have a duty to adapt to their workforce, and this is usually driven by the need for the workforce to provide the income. But it would be unfair to ‘blame’ the profession or the industry for the ‘happiness’ of the workforce. It is of course not ideal if there are swathes of employees who are unhappy, underpaid or overworked, and that dialogue is important and must be heard. But there are forces at work on businesses which are not always well understood by employees that are removed from what is involved in running a practice or business. Spike made a comment that he feels there can be more autonomy available to employees than there are for practice owners, for example. It could appear that those people have ‘made it’ but there are different pain points for those people, which are not always evident to the rest of the practice.
There was much chat about career progression being a process which cannot be cut short. All graduates need to decide what it is they want to get from their career as an equine vet. If one person wishes to work 3 days a week and carry out no out of hours, and is happy to bring home the reflective salary, whilst another wishes to work 5 days a week and a 1:4 on call for a higher wage, there is no judgement to be had. However, as the panellists discussed, the two individuals will progress at different rates both clinically, professionally and financially. So long as everyone’s expectations are realistic there is no issue with how people conduct their career journeys. There should be understanding that the profession can be flexible in many ways, however there is a need to provide a service to the animals in our communities. It is not our responsibility to ensure there is adequate service delivery, but there will be market forces bestowed upon our profession that are a direct result of these factors. Those are somewhat beyond the control of any of us, but what is within the control of each of us, is to understand the industry we are in, to be cognisant of the our roles within it and of those around us, and to realise that we are the only ones who can control our experiences but reacting to them in a way which serves us best. In this modern era we are so exposed to the experiences of others, more than any human has ever been in the history of our species, but there is something to be said for concentrating on what we see in the mirror.
Our next BEVA Unbridled session will take place on Wednesday 16 August, focusing on EDI.
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