August: The Dog Days of Summer

It is a very evocative phrase, conjuring up images of exhausted dogs or struggling professional baseball players, but the origin of the expression has nothing to do with either of those things. The phrase originally comes from the Latin dies caniculares, which translates to "days of the dog star." The Romans used this term to describe the time when Sirius, the Dog Star, would appear in the sky near the end of July, marking the start of the year's hottest days. It just means, “It’s about to get super-hot.”

And if you are selling products or services specifically for the summer, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, you may earn 70% of your annual revenue within a few valuable months. But for many others, it's the worst time of the year to make money. Oddly, among the suggestions for successful business ventures in the “dog days” is dog walking, as well as landscaping, pool cleaning, and house painting.

If your company is not raking in dog days cash, you are probably also dealing with workforce energy that matches the diminished customer demand.  In your offices you have parents with kids out of school, unofficial summer hours, effectively useless Friday afternoons, and completely lost Mondays. Productivity for many teams takes a real summertime dip. This general malaise may have inspired the song “The Dog Days Are Over,” by Florence and the Machine, which focuses on the light at the end of the dog day tunnel.

One suggestion is to lean in on those dog days. Sure, you can do lots of analysis and planning and retooling, but none of that will generate the kind of transactions that will keep your team at top speed, so embrace it and focus on keeping your team feeling happy and fulfilled. Schedule informal one-on-ones and talk about ideas for the business, and ways to make people feel more valued, employee benefits, retirement plans, and then give them the chance to deal with their “domestic dog days”—institute flex hours and 4-day weeks and a floating holiday—if you can’t generate busier you can generate happier.

Studies show that difficulty saving for retirement is one of the obstacles to employee happiness. MarylandSaves is a state-sponsored retirement savings plan that makes it possible for any employer to offer a retirement savings plan to their employees for free and earn a $300 waiver of their SDAT annual report filing fee.

So as the Dog Days wind down, and the Orioles are clutching onto the lead in the division, and you are clutching to your sanity and your team, remember to hydrate.