Back to Work

Today was the first day back to work after taking most of the month of January off. Since our work is somewhat seasonal, most of the staff took January off.

I have mixed feeling about going back to work at the office. The cons? Not being able to sleep in to 8:30 a.m. Not being able to spend most of the day with my little family. It would be so much fun to make a living without the 8-5 job the business requires at this stage. Hopefully one day, we’ll be able to work together as a family, creating videos and selling products we love to create. Another con? I noticed a couple pimples emerge on my forehead just today. I usually have very few pimples on my forehead, and I am noticing my stress bodies stress response. At one point this afternoon I had cold sweat running down from my underarms. And I wasn’t dealing with anything particularly stressful. I was simply focusing and working away. I need to learn to moderate my stress response.

The pros of going back to work? Working at a project that is larger than life is rewarding. Taking the revenue from 3.5 to 4.25 million this year seems like a goal that is fun to tackle. Other times, I wonder if we will keep moving the goal post higher and higher, meaning the feeling of going from 4.25 to 5 million will feel exactly the same as the previous step up. That doesn’t feel very exciting. That was a rabbit trail. Another pro? I enjoy working with some of our high energy guys in particular. Saying hello in the morning and knowing that they have a livelihood in part because of my efforts gives me that feeling of being needed.

My to do list for today (as copied from my Microsoft To Do app:

• Pray

• Pull weekly data

• Have a look at Tariffs, and make a plan for purchasing lumber.

• Get info prepped for Cambridge series, including asking Micah about siding

• Get back to Jonathan.

• Ask Darvin for a conversation.

• Review our goal meeting and pull todo’s and record data.

• Respond to Leandro on the logo.

• Check to see when Cufca training is happening in March.

• Document stating that some tools are to be provided by employee.

• Look at discounts for February?

• Collect stock report on materials from Taiga

• Ask Scott for an update.

I just noticed that all of my to dos, except for one end with either a period or question mark. Whatever. I also had a couple of phone conversations throughout the day and answered some questions that came up from our guys in the shop. I felt more productive than I would from a typical day working at home.

Now I need to be off for a quick bath and then I need to read for 30 minutes. After that, it’s…

Goodnight!

Based on Trust

Last week I was on a video call with our CPA. Part of our conversation covered the topic of business banking and how business bankers rely heavily on trust. A CPA with a great reputation introducing us to a banker potentially changes how the banker views us. We are not just someone looking for the services he offers, but rather this is the start of a relationship that has an element of rapport built in right from the start. Business bankers that like you will advocate for you. If they don't like you, tough.

An employee that feels like he is not being treated fairly will typically not stick around. My job as a boss is to be above board in all my interactions with my employees. I do not need to do as they think, but I do need to respectfully listen to and consider their arguments. I believe that an open exchange of ideas (without the fear of penalization) forms part of the basis of trust. Fair compensation reinforces our relationship. Try to hand your employees the short end of the stick and you have a recipe for disaster.

God entrusts us with so many things:

• relationships

• resources such as time and money

• natural talents

• spiritual gifts (for the Christian)

This is truly impressive. He tells us what He expects us to do, and gives us the parameters within which to accomplish the task. This is true delegation and based on immense trust. God's level of delegation is something I aspire to.

The Worst Employee

I started working my first full time job when I was 16 years old. I loved school and finished high school early with the dream of studying medicine one day and becoming a medical doctor.

I went to work for a carpentry crew. My starting wage: $12/hr. I felt good about my starting wage as the minimum wage at the time was $10/hr., and I was new to the trade, and not yet 17 at that.

I did not enjoy carpentry. The first project I helped build was a 3 story apartment building with 18 suites per floor (if my memory serves me right). It was hot. Very hot. Guzzling down a gallon of water during work was not unheard of. I detested physical labour, thinking that I wanted to work with my brain "doing work that matters". Like helping people in an emergency room or intensive care unit.

When I had been with the company for approximately one year, I was earning $14 and some dollars/hr. We had wrapped up the big framing project close to home, requiring me to commute further. The 40 minute commute was too far a drive for my $14/hr. wage. Or so I thought. The "long drive" combined with my detestation of any physical labour put me in an ugly frame of mind.

I complained about the long drive and that the commute cost me too much money. In the meantime, my work ethic was pathetic. One task, in particular, comes to mind. I was assigned the task of fastening styrofoam to the underside of a bay window cantilever on a new house construction. What now would take me 15 minutes to accomplish, took several hours of time. Clocked in time.

One Friday I told my boss that I was going to quit early that day to go job hunting. What a brat! I deserved to be fired. My job hunt proved to be useless. Not surprising, given my arrogance.

My bosses didn't complain or scold me. They should've fired me or given me an ultimatum: to shape up or to be fired.

I eventually did leave the company to go study at the University of Manitoba, where I took most of the prerequisite courses I needed to get admitted into the College of Nursing. I did enjoy school, hard as some of the courses were (anatomy and physiology, especially). But after a year of university, I emerged with a different attitude towards work. What had changed?

My perspective on life.

Fast forward 10 years. I now co-own Pine View Buildings with my brother, and get to hire people. It's been 10 years since my first job. The roles are reversed. In retrospect, I marvel at the patience the owners of Summit Contracting had with me.

And I get to do work that matters.

2 x Normal

If my compensation would be directly tied to the value I produce throughout my working day, my pay graph would look like this:

Actually, if you average my earnings across the above graph, I would earn $40/hr. See below:

I am not arguing that employees should demand more money from their employers. The above simply shows when my most valuable work happens. This is how my day may look:

8:15 am. Walk into the office and open the Notion Calendar app to check what is on my to-do from the previous day. Add tasks that are not in the list that need to be tackled today. Organize my tasks within the day to optimize efficiency.

8:30 am. I am on a roll. Knock out several tasks that take 15 min., or so, each.

9:00 am. Start tackling a bigger, more critical project. For example, this morning, my assistant and I started to tackle the books on a new company we started to manage recently.

10 am. Morning coffee with the crew.

10:20 am. Back at the above project.

11:00 am. Still at it.

12:00 am. Tackle several emails and other smaller tasks.

12:30 pm. Lunch at the office.

1:00 pm. - 5:00 pm. Complete all sorts of tasks and work on longer term projects.

My brain is the perkiest in the morning. Using peak brain performance for the most demanding and critical projects means I work on those projects in the morning. Also, mornings tend to carry fewer interruptions as small problem and technical questions tend to arise later in the day.

On a typical day, my time at 9:00 am is easily worth many times what it is at 4:00 pm. By 2:30, I can feel my focus and energy start to decrease. In my experience, focus on critical projects burns through tons of energy.

(I am starting to wonder if I should start my day at 7 am. to get an extra hour of power time, and go home an hour earlier?)

I feel like the above connection between time and work-value is more acute for people tackling complex projects, or those who manage people or operations. A truck driver who drive 13 hours per day will not experience the time/work value relationship the same way that an operations or department manager does.

I am writing this at 9:38 pm. I find that creative work flows well in the evening. Even with a head that hurts a little. But, if I work on the most neuron-intensive projects in the mornings, then, maybe... my writing isn't my brightest output. Just keep in mind that the above analysis may be worth exactly what you paid for it. 😀

When My Head Hurts

Today, at the 10 A.M. coffee break, I commented that my head hurts. One of my guys responded with, "that's what most people call a headache." I just about never have headaches. But my head does ache – probably at the rate of several times per week.

I find that certain conditions need to be met for my head to be in a stressed state. Some contributing factors are:

• Multiple tasks piling up at the same time

• Time pressure on at least one of the tasks

• Trying to figure out a complex set of problems (such as learning to manage a new set of books as part of managing a company for an external owner)

• An external stressor (such as personal finances or health, etc.)

• An emergency situation (a semi truck getting stuck on the road side 4 hours away from headquarters)

Usually it will take a combination of at least two or three of these to trigger that feeling in my head. I can still function effectively. But it does signal to me that I am burning more calories than normal, and I will likely feel more tired than usual at the end of the day. Also, I realize that this sort of stress affects the quantity of grey hair on my head and may also effect my overall health.

Here are several tips to help manage stress in a stressful and busy business environment:

• Create a weekly to-do list.

• Break down the weekly to-do list into daily tasks.

• If tasks emerge that were not anticipated, jot them down immediately into your master to-do list, instead of trying to hold that to-do in your memory. Your stressed mind is bound to forget and feel even more taxed trying to remember what you're supposed to remember...

• Taking a break does wonders for clearing my mind. After today's stressful morning, I spent more than half the day arranging 9 miniSheds in preparation for a photoshoot. A creative outlet like that puts me in my "happy zone", helping me destress.

• Stepping outside for fresh air. Kick that up a notch, and do a little jog under God's open sky.

• Take natural supplements that support your adrenals and/or your cognitive function.

• Go home. This holds true when it's quitting time and my head hurts, but I want to get my project done. Sometimes pushing through is the way to go. Often, the better choice is to go home to my dear family for supper and wrap up that project the following day when I'm well rested.

If you work for an employer and don't carry a big load of responsibility, be blessed. Sometimes, I dream of a work arrangement like this.

If you are in a management position with two tons of responsibility, manage your stress, and realize that the degree of fulfillment you experience at work tends to be tied to the responsibility that is the cause of the mental load you carry. This responsibility turns into a stressed blessing.

If you own and operate a business, be very stressed and very blessed. Somehow, this has been my experience. The interactions with my team, customers, and other business owners in the community are wonderful. Knowing that I get to directly contribute to putting food on the table and building a local, Christian community – this is the mileage I get from the many gallons of stress.

At the moment, this seems like a good trade.