layout: true background-image: url(../../images/slide_background.jpg) background-size: cover class: middle --- # Being busy, work satisfaction and learning ### Medium Quotes --- ### “One of the ways I coped massively when I was doing a lot of routine stuff was to get my own interest on farms. So, I’ve got a bit of an interest in infectious diseases and when I was on farm I talked to farmers about other things just to try and keep my brain working but also get some interest from their side as well. And you didn’t get positive every time, but it was interesting how it led to discussions. And I think, generally, that extra bit of interest helps with motivation.” --- ### “I enjoy going out and doing the routine stuff and having the time, the main thing, if you know you have time to do a routine but also discuss other things that are going on on the farm. That’s really when things are going well, and you enjoy it.” --- ### “The best parts practically are the routine stuff or a pneumonia case, where you’re actually doing a herd health thing with it. The best part is the actual chatting, planning, talking things through is the part I enjoy most.” --- ### “As much as anything, determination to widen my knowledge and experiences and find farmers that are engaged and use them. That was a big bonus for me, if you’ve got farmers who are interested in things and get them to talk to other people as well to engage other farmers and that feels positive as well.” --- ### “Well I think, nobody’s perfect. Most of the time I get it right, now and again I get it wrong. I’m allowed to get it wrong and as long as I don’t make the same mistake again, I learn from it, if I make the same mistake I’d be very disappointed in myself. So learn from the mistake and the experience.” --- ### “Trouble is, I think some of the courses are taught too intensively. They create the same problem that you’ve got to do everything perfectly. Too much chase for perfection and not taking the average line.” --- ### “… livestock is what I enjoy because you’re out and about. I enjoy farm work, enjoy going to different farms – not stuck in a building all day. I’d rather be out even on a bad day than be stuck in a building on a consult.” --- ### “I think my longer-term ambition helped me cope in the shorter-term. I’d set myself a goal and then extend it or make it even higher or harder. Thinking, we’ve got to there, so we’ll just keep going. I put that effort in when I was younger hoping I wouldn’t have to work so hard when I was older and I’ve got a day off now.” --- ### “A lot of it about livestock work is that you’re tending to make amends for people’s mistakes – like husbandry has been bad so the animals are ill. But if you can make husbandry changes, so if you can educate clients to make those changes, it’s a really nice win/win.” --- ### “… routine becomes routine and you don’t get intellectually stimulated. And now I’m doing a Master’s degree to keep myself ticking over because I get the physical buzz but not the intellectual buzz which you constantly got that at University.” --- ### “The better, longer lasting the relationship, the more farmers trust / value you and the more they will use you for in depth activities rather than just the first aid type of thing. In the herd health / planning in depth management side of things.” --- ### “I’ve phoned my boss before coming back from a torsion and twisted and the calf was swollen, and I still couldn’t get it out and I couldn’t operate on her. So I rang my boss and said, “what could I have done differently, what could I learn from this?” --- ### “I just, I worked very, very hard over there. Joined the practice in 20__ and in 20__ I joined the partnership and I became more and more involved in both the running of the business and the community in general. So, I was very busy, I kept myself busy.” --- ### “I’ve had things go wrong but I’ve never had a client saying, “you did that wrong”. If I’ve done something that didn’t go the way I would have wanted it to, I’ve forgotten about them within 24 hours. I do like that phrase, “Hard won experience”. “Calm seas make poor sailors” is very true. My technique will have improved due to the things I’ve got wrong or got right, you’d have to jog my memory and say, “do you remember when….” that happened. --- ### “In terms of the job, feeling like you’re making a difference. Any intervention like calving a cow, and you know you made a difference. Or doing a fertility visit where you know you’re part of a more complex picture. Or stitching something up – the simple making a difference. And the physical - it’s very satisfying doing some of these jobs. Getting stuck in. And I enjoy working with animals, hanging out with cows!” --- ### “A lot of it is hard graft requiring no grey matter. Some people have never quite twigged that that is what it’s about. People can get frightened into thinking they are not doing anything. Sometimes, lack of confidence has to be met with a “get on and do it”. Other times, “so and so has only been graduated a month and has done a solo caesarean”. This is a tightrope. Graduates do decide their own destiny: make your own luck.” --- ### “Sometimes, you’ve got a busy day and you weren’t planning on that extra calving and it’s turned into a caesarean and you don’t want to be there. But you’re there and you’re doing it and you have to just get a grip and get on with it.” --- ### “I enjoy doing a repetitive job well. So, I do get a very simple satisfaction from doing something practical and simple well. But I wouldn’t be able to just do that all the time. So, you do need to be able to see how that sits in the bigger picture.” --- ### “Always doing your best, going the extra mile is sometimes doing a bit more than is more than is necessary, e.g when a cow died, the farmer didn’t want a PM so I did it for free at the knackers and learned something and took that back to the farmer. So, it was a positive experience out of a negative one.” --- ### “Also, very important is to analyse anything that happens at work or on farms and think, “what could I have done differently?” And being better prepared for next time. Talking to colleagues, important to have meetings, discussions. And thinking ahead – if you have a stressful visit ahead, it’s good to have a bit of time to prepare yourself so that you’re not overwhelmed when you arrive.” --- ### “I applied for a Master’s in Business Administration so I’m now in my first year of my MBA and the thinking behind that was that it would help me if I stayed in practice, it would help me if we got bought up by a corporate. And we actually subsequently, did get bought up by a corporate. But it also gave me an exit route to go and do something else if I didn’t want to keep being a vet.” --- ### “Fortunately, I’ve never been there. The closest I’ve been is the TB testing - can be soul-sapping but 5.00 pm always comes. It’s a social thing as well (talking about, name of location round-up the week before Christmas) You can always look back on it.” --- ### “The jobs that actually sometimes cause you a bit of anxiety going because you haven’t done one for a while or it’s something new, you do a bit of prep or research and actually they go really well, the farmer’s really pleased and so you are pushing yourself a little bit but actually that gives you even more job satisfaction at the end of it rather than doing the everyday stuff.” --- ### “For me, I would look for the practicalities of what you’d do in that situation. So previously, I’d have carried a textbook; “These symptoms? This is what it could be”. Practical help like that would work for me. Make sure that you’re doing the right thing in that situation. --- ### “If you got our team on a good day when we’ve all seen clients who have said, this is weird, can you come and have a look at this or this cow’s done something really silly, we all love that job because we’re helping people, we’re helping animals.” --- ### “The successful clinical visits to sick cows or going onto farm for more proactive visits – e.g. just being on farm to do a lameness assessment, management of the farm system as a whole. Follow up visits. Finding out if what we did on farm worked, or if it didn’t then work out what to do next.” --- ### “If you got our team on a good day when we’ve all seen clients who have said, “this is weird, can you come and have a look at this” or “this cow’s done something really silly”. We all love that job because we’re helping people, we’re helping animals.” --- ### “I’m fairly resilient, I would normally think about the other good things that were right from that day or in that week. I would normally visit about 4 or 5 or 6 farms per day and having one go wrong in one day.” --- ### “Helping farmers to find a good outcome to a situation. Either giving them negative results (which are good) or enabling them to access things. I deal a lot with TB breakdown so helping them to get a licence, for example, to sell cattle or to bring them on gives me more satisfaction that saying “no”.” --- ### “Things like if I was discussing biosecurity and I could suggest something that I’d spotted, and it gives the farmer a light bulb moment and they think, “oh yes, I could easily do that”. Then that gives me satisfaction – I’ve suggested something that might help. I like helping people so anything that goes against that now, as I’ve got older that has a negative impact on me so anything that results in a positive outcome for the animals and the farmers makes me happy.” --- ### “In terms of the job, feeling like you’re making a difference. Any intervention like calving a cow – and you know you made a difference. Or doing a fertility visit where you know you’re part of a more complex picture. Or, stitching something up – the simple making a difference and the physical - it’s very satisfying doing some of these jobs. Getting stuck in. And I enjoy working with animals, hanging out with cows!” --- ### “Interacting with clients, making an impact on farms – so the more time I’ve been in a job, I feel more happy building relationships with different farmers and gives me knowledge that I know my farmers. I know my farms and I don’t feel lost in what I’m doing. Feel great joy when I have successful visits be it treating an animal or having a consultation but feeling I’ve had a successful day, having achieved something.” --- ### “Helping farmers I’ve known for 42 years. Three maybe four generations on the same farm – continuity, friendship and that feeling of doing something useful to help people – best feeling in the world – very rewarding.” --- ### “Talking to people, being part of a community, making a difference, helping animals, being part of a team with the farmer – part of the farmer’s team. Both financially and helping them through stressful times so you can be a sounding board.”