Shop owners--- How do you deal with a bad week and not wanting to do anything.

Its 10pm on a Saturday night at the shop, and I don't want to do a fricken thing.

Its been one of those weeks. Nothing has gone right. The business is great, no problems at all with the partner, business is booming. 2 more machines showing up on Tuesday, backlogged well into next year...

Still, I'm just frustrated, been working on a casting from hell for the past 3 or 4 days, nothing is going right, I've got all the pieces cut up for the third different fixture, hopefully this is the one that will work. On top of this crappy casting, we had a miserable rush assembly a few days ago that was less than thrilling, fiberglass all over the place, itchy, and bolts that didn't want to go in.

Went to replace some bulbs above a machine a few hours ago, 18 feet in the air by myself, climbing up the forklift, the fixture was broken. Using a drop light now. Went to back the forklift out and the door had dropped, smacked the mast into the door, had to use the forklift to push the door back in. Just one more thing on top of all the other stupid stuff thats happened this week.

Right now I'm just squaring up another casting on an open mill(rip in the jeans so one boot is full of aluminum bronze chips) drinking some beers(I have a bed here, so I'm not driving) and doing some organizing, and sweeping.

I know it will be better on monday, I'll bail out of here a little after noon tomorrow(after this stupid casting is running), grab a few beers and be home in time for the Pats-Colts game, get up early Monday, and be back here, hopefully with a smile on my face and a better attitude.

So is this normal? I know when I was working hourly, I would get pissed off, take a break, still get paid, and then go home. Now, if it doesn't get out, I don't get paid, and today, I just don't want to do it.

Anybody have any little mental games they play with themselves to get psyched up to do the crappy frustrating jobs, someway to make it seem fun, besides counting the dollars, because its just not happening on this one.

Heck yes I feel the same way from time to time.
I remember when I was an hourly employee and I thought the boss had it easy.

Just keep on trucking
DPP

Also if that does not work
Me my 7mm rifle 100 rounds = stress relief

Might be time to just take a day or 2 off... And forget the shop exists.. I can remember working 12 to 14 hour days, no days off for weeks at a time.. I would get so inefficient, that everything went wrong... I could get away for a few days, and things went so much smoother when I got back.. Within a few days, I had more than made up for the lost time.

Steven Covey calls it 'sharpening the saw'. At the moment your saw is dull, and stroking it harder just makes it more dull. When you are working harder and accomplishing less, you tend to work even harder and more to try to make up for it, which makes you even less efficient, etc, etc. You need to step away, even though all your instints are to work harder, in order to sharpen your saw and make the sawing go better. I learned long ago not to work sundays because that screwed up the whole rest of the week for me.

Taking some time off will help get more done, honest. You really can only burn that candle at both ends so long.

Mud (Who has been there and done that. More'n once...)

Bob,

Started a job on Mon. $2400, should be done in two long days.....fastforward to today...have already lost three pieces only run 20 of the eighty pieces....broke cutters,had to repair an indexer to run it, had to buy a comparator to check it,had to reprogram this about three times. maybe a little closer tolerance than my Fadal likes. One dim is .041-042 total on z and has to be cut from both sides. I'm beat but will have to work tomorrow afternoon to make the deadline....and i'm swamped with work that will have to be rushed to make up for a lousy week. All this topped by my blood sugar doing a major yo-yo this week which always makes me feel crappy....

And i'm supposed to be saving up for an out of state move......

Can't say as misery loves company cause reading your post didn't make me feel any better....

Just part of the trade and it doesn't last for ever....

Get in your car with your wife or girl friend and go for a drive for at least 2-3 hours.

Exercise like a bike ride or long walk works also and maybe better.

Go to a golf driving range and hit a couple big buckets of balls. That works even if you have never played golf. You will be tired. Lay off the beer.

sometimes you just got to walk away from it for a bit.

some years ago, while married to attilla's evil twin sister i was forced to walk away from the buisiness for a week.

"we got their and i was told,, here is your kid!
i got her all the time,, now it is your turn"

my daughter was 3 months old, the battleaxe left for the beach at sun up and didn't return till sundown for the whole week.

it was the best vacation of my life!
me and the infant had the condo to ourselves, no phone, no customers, no employee's and best of all no friggin wife!

came back to reality a week later and found that i had not even thought of work for a whole week.

guess what it was still there! just as i left it.

the upside was i was clear of mind, and relaxed.
more able to deal with the day to day stuff...

except for the wife,,, she was still a pain in butt

even a vacation won't fix that i guess

if you got a business partner, get him to pick up the reigns and go take a walk and clear you head.

it will all be there when you get back.

bob g

I find tool based *retail therapy" works, even if it's just a new protective lens cover for my welding helmet or something equally cheap.


Failing that, a couple of hours at the local boobie bar is almost as good....

Been there many times over the last 35 years
I'm working now sunday morning, started at 3am to get some problems solved that were left over from the prior week.( not a great week either)
I have 80 employees all of which are home relaxing, but thats ok I own the joint, love my job and need to do over and above what I would expect of my help . Thats what makes me/you the boss.
When it gets to the point your at I just drop the beer (it doesn't help) and go for a ride to somewhere that doesn't remind me of the problems. Spend some quality time with me, go home and spend more quality time with my wife.
Get some good sleep, when you wake up it is a new day and things go much better

Bottom line is ya don't complain or worry about the good job's, so if you get a bad one once and awhile just relax and before you know it, it will be over/gone/done/forgotten

Aint it called taking the good with the bad?
good advice above here.
beer is'nt going to help.
laugh at it just like you do a good day,the two imposters are the same,failure and success that is.
GW

Go do something that makes you laugh. Preferably do it with someone who also makes you laugh. If you are really lucky, that person is your significant other.

I just finished 2 weeks of 18 hour days. Tonight my wife and I are going out for steak.

".....the two imposters are the same,failure and success that is"

I can sympathize, while others probably give
sound advice to take a break, I cannot seem to take
anytime off when a big problem is not solved, if I
went to the beach I would be thinking about that mill part that won't run right. I had to take 28
days off because of a bad back ( I have had 2 surgeries ) lucky I sell my own products and had
items made in advance, but I turned down side work.
Anyway I still have a left leg thats half numb and
I have to be careful as not to fall, I now have
worked almost 100 hours last week trying to get some
inventory back on the shelves, so I have just
kept on pushing when I can, and I think that is
the best way, rest when things are calmed down.
Sorry I just vented,.........Bob

Go do something that makes you laugh. Preferably do it with someone who also makes you laugh. If you are really lucky, that person is your significant other.

I just finished 2 weeks of 18 hour days. Tonight my wife and I are going out for steak


That is some good advice, simply put and at this point in that nasty job of yours is something to look forward too.

Although bills have to be paid, it helps to try to pick the nicer work. I've been trying to avoid the bad headaches, even if I could do it. I just don't like that worry anymore. Prefer to turn it away than to wish I'd never touched it, or lost $ trying to get it done. Of course someone somewhere has to do it...

It's also good if there's not too much stress from overhead.

Usually when its busy. I've just worked all I can, every day until its done. Don't we all? Last 2 or 3 weeks things have been slower and I've been taking the Wednesday afternoon to go outside and visit a little. Worked only 3 hours yesterday, and might do another 3 or 4 today. Although I've set myself a minimum average that I want to make per month. I mostly just want to be happy doing what I do.

Trying to play guitar a little bit here and there helps, so does taking the time to eat a real lunch and checking this forum

I'm just a poor old VMC programmer/setter/operator/centerless grinder setter/lathe looker afterer
And yes I suffer from the evil stress monsters (also known as the owner and the operators )
And some days I can go into work and think ahh loverly little programming setting job for the first 2 hrs and then maybe a setup from plunge to through on the centerless and thats my morning taken care of, and by the end of the day, due to the above stress factors you still have'nt finished setting the VMC and the customer/production manager are screaming for the grinding job which you have no chance of doing until Thursday.

In such times coming home, booting up the PC starting this game >> Team fortress 2 and playing as a pyromaniac and setting fire to people can be a great stress buster*

Boris

*sure beats taking one of these these into work and going postal... although with one of those I could lay on my roof and shoot the place up pretty well(its about 3/4 mile away)

Sometimes it can be really tough. Some mornings I have so much crap on my desk I don't know where to start. It help having a hobby to take your mind of off work. I like to take my boat on the lake and drop anchor in the bay. After a couple hours I feel like a new man.

Yup, perfectly normal. I'm working today, just like I did last weekend, and every weekend for the past three months.

When I have a bad week I say ^$@# it all and get on the motorcycle. Sometimes I don't return until Monday morning with another 1,500 or so miles on the bike. I did that yesterday. I'm actually getting something done today.

I've found that the law of diminishing returns applies. At some point, working harder on the problem doesn't solve it but creates a bigger pile of scrap.

Meditate.

Clear your mind.

Got several things that must be done immediately? If you die in the next 5 minutes, are those jobs going to wait? If your customer dies in the next 5 minutes, will someone come and pick up the job on time anyway? Not likely.

When I feel overwhelmed, it is usually by juggling several parallel 'urgent' situations at the same time, even though I can only do 1 thing at a time.

So pick one thing to tackle, and work on it. Set all other stuff aside and do that job and do not be distracted from it. Conquering one phase of one project should improve your mood (if you are sober).

Do what you can to provide backup resources in case of a machine breakdown. Don't schedule every machine to the max all the time. You own your machinery for your own pleasure, and if you are enslaved to a lender for taking too big of a bite, well....learn not to do that

Don't kid yourself about how fast you can program and setup a job. Be realistic. I'm reasonably convinced that machine shops cut one another's throats by working overtime on repairs and tough jobs at regular time rates (or less), trying to improve the illusion of their shop's image as a speedy, yet reasonable service provider. Most of us are not another Sears or Walmart, and our personal powers to accomodate our customers are very limited and insignificant.

If we don't enjoy our own lives, on one else really gives a damn, so do what you must do to stay happy.