Career heat check

It’s still humid. Your mind and body are wilting. Your crew has given more to a job than any reasonable manager can expect. Your customers and bosses continue to expect more of everything for more golfers than ever.

Tournaments. Outings. Filled tee sheets. Make the greens faster. Keep the bunkers consistent. Two inches of rain in two hours followed by three weeks of nada. Shucks, the summer help must return to school!

How did the “100 Days of Hell” suddenly become the “Four Months of Fright?”

A few friends have bolted for other jobs. A few others left the industry. They might now get an extended summer vacation. The vitality of turf mowed at .110 inches won’t be dictating their Labor Day weekend.

Their lives now seem awesome. It has to be that way, because you noticed the fun photos they posted on social media over the weekend. You think your life can become equally awesome if you leave this job or this industry. The cons of staying the course through the summer to maintain a golf course suddenly appear to outweigh the pros — by a wide margin.

Social media skews reality. Leaving a job in its toughest moment might yield long-term regret.

Like turf, air and car engines, careers need heat checks. When best to conduct one represents a gigantic question.

Earlier this summer, an industry confidant sent me a text about the abundance of clubs losing assistants in the middle of summer.

Follow-up text from him: “Common theme: between member-guests and Fourth of July — no time off.”

Me: “Where are these assistants going? Other clubs? Or leaving the maintenance side of the industry?”

Him: “Both.”

The increased frequency of peak-season job moves, especially in cool-weather climates, represents a shift within the industry and raises numerous questions.

Have summers become more physically and mentally taxing? Are supervisors still expecting key employees to work 10, 20 or 30 days in a row? Are crews still so short-staffed where key employees need to work 10, 20 or 30 days in a row to produce the product customers expect? Is September the new August? Would greens really fail to meet expectations if more superintendents and assistants took summer vacations? Can emerging technology relieve human dilemmas associated with the profession?

All of the above reads like a future Golf Course Industry cover story and research report. We’ll get our team on it.

All of the above, though, doesn’t address a major question: Is leaving a job and team in the middle of the toughest stretch a wise long-term career move?

Competition for elite jobs, in any industry, will always be fierce. High-paying jobs are high-paying jobs for a reason: they require an eclectic blend of leadership abilities and technical skills. Excellent hiring managers and search firms for these jobs dissect every line on a résumé.

Only the people leaving their courses and teams in the middle of the toughest stretches have the answers. Perhaps the reasons for leaving a job mid-summer are valid. But optics matter and seeing a July or August job change on a golf industry résumé could lead to uncomfortable questions about commitment and leadership ability. It also might result in a résumé being tossed in the trash folder.

There are two sides to every personnel move. If your course continually loses key employees when you need them the most, you might want to reconsider how you’re treating them. Once a club obtains the “Employer to Avoid” label, managers become stressed, culture deteriorates, and product quality and customer service suffer. Good luck flourishing in the modern golf market with a staff comprised of “Employees to Avoid.”

Summer will always be a season of sacrifice in the golf industry. The more sacrifices somebody makes for the long-term benefit of their career, the more desirable they become to future employers. The more sacrifices employers make for the long-term good of their people, the more likely they are to keep stalwarts around until the end of the summer.

Unless the job has become 100 percent intolerable, staying steady in the short term and then reflecting when heat and stress dissipate should provide the perspective to make the right long-term play.