I GIVE UP, seriously this year can just **** off

[Master Jedi Alejandro]

they would, but then on the flip side I personally would know I could of gave more and got them a better headstart

Since you’re being honest mate I will to. I have no experience, I’m only in my early 20s. However, I can relate from your children’s perspective. Five year ago my dad walked out on us. I personally blame it on his work. He’s a very intelligent guy and thus very successful. And we always had what we wanted. Not what we needed, but wanted. He made sure of it. And it burned him out. I never saw him in the end, he travelled away a lot and his work became all consuming. What we needed, and he needed, was each other. We could have survived on a lot less and been happy. What your family needs is you. Yes it’s your responsibility to put food on the table, but it sounds like you are someone who will always find a way to do that, no matter the circumstances. But you can’t do that if you’ve burned yourself out, or destroyed yourself another way. 
 

Like others have said, we don’t know your life and I don’t wanna intrude. But thought maybe I could help add a angle for you to consider. Find your happiness, mate. Money isn’t it. We need money and work, but it isn’t the reason for life.
 

Hope you can figure something out for yourself. Sorry it’s been a **** year!

 

[mike007]

At the end of October...look around, and you will see lots and lots of recently employed people now unemployed. They will have mortgages, partners,kids etc.....and little chance of another job any time soon. And you may think...hey there are lots worst off then me.

But as stated by others YOUR health is more important than mere money. The good thing is you have identified the reasons for your mood of late. That is the starting point, the rest is in your hands mate

 

[Oli]

A saying I always live by is “you can’t pour from an empty cup” meaning you’ve got to look after yourself first. 
It sounds very selfish to some people but self-care is a necessity not an indulgence. 
We all want to put our family at the top of our priorities and assume they want everything and we try our best to provide that. Like Alejandro said they probably just want your love and time and for you to be happy. 

 

[dazmond]

Sell some work. 
Sack the employees. 
Keep the cream & work part time. 
Live a simple life ?

This is good advice...I work 25-30 hours a week (including admin,end of day jobs)and earn £45k-£50k a year.....

I've found  my sweet spot......sod employing!it can be a headache!

I have a van from new(3 years old), xtreme poles,electric reel and hot water system.....??

 

[TWC]

Sorry to hear your having a ? time. 

I do think employees sometimes give you more stress than the financial benefit they bring. I’ve had an employee for 18 months and to be fair he’s mainly been a god send. After a year working out of the same van I put him in his own van and I’ve hated it. Worrying if he’s going to do a good job on his own. Will he look after the van. Fed up of sorting two vans out and having to park our car on the street. Few moans off customers as they want me not my employee.

Decided id had enough so as of Monday he’s back in my van and will see how it goes. Sold his van already just got to take the system out over the weekend and list it on eBay. 

Might cost me a bit in profit but my stress level is more important 

I think sometimes you need to reset things to when you were happy if things aren’t working. 

Hope you find a way to get back to your happy place. ?

 

[CHWS]

Sorry to hear your having a ? time. 

I do think employees sometimes give you more stress than the financial benefit they bring. I’ve had an employee for 18 months and to be fair he’s mainly been a god send. After a year working out of the same van I put him in his own van and I’ve hated it. Worrying if he’s going to do a good job on his own. Will he look after the van. Fed up of sorting two vans out and having to park our car on the street. Few moans off customers as they want me not my employee.

Decided id had enough so as of Monday he’s back in my van and will see how it goes. Sold his van already just got to take the system out over the weekend and list it on eBay. 

Might cost me a bit in profit but my stress level is more important 

I think sometimes you need to reset things to when you were happy if things aren’t working. 

Hope you find a way to get back to your happy place. ?

This is something I’ve been toying with doing myself. Exactly in the same boat with regards to him doing a good enough job by himself 

 

[brianbadonde]

Ive gone too far to turn back to a 1 man now as it would be too difficult to downsize unless I went pop

Surely this can’t be the case? Why can’t you down-size? This is what I would do. My books have been bursting for a couple of years and speaking to a friend and fellow windy a while ago, he advised me not to employ people. He did it for years, then got fed up, sold loads of work, took the best work for himself, and his happy as a pig in s**t on his own, with his savings he made from selling the work. I took his advise, I think being a one-man-band is enough stress, I want a nice life. I hope you get things sorted mate, it’s about getting a work/life balance and occasionally I think for most of us the scales can tilt the wrong way at times.

 

[THL4KEL]

Why don't you train your employees on what you expect from them and write them a staff handbook. Then performance manage them. If they don't preform how you expect then let them go and find someone that does.

 

[Pjj]

Why don't you train your employees on what you expect from them and write them a staff handbook. Then performance manage them. If they don't preform how you expect then let them go and find someone that does.

That’s a very good idear in theory but in practice it’s far harder to implement , I have got 5 great guys that work for me , but I have got through a serious lot of wasters in the process , sacked one guy on his first morning before he evan started as he turned up 45 muinits late saying he overslept , no apology or sorry it won’t happen again ,if he’s like that on the first morning what will he be like once he thinks he has his feet under the table . Ime very fair with staff and they like working for me but I won’t take messers as staff or customers, all my staff are ex emergency services workers and all have a good work ethic, they are a good bunch of guys I look after them and they look after my work and are 100% trustworthy which is difficult to find in this day and age .

 

[Part Timer]

all my staff are ex emergency services workers and all have a good work ethic.

Sounds like they've all got good pensions and working till they can retire. Very hard in big cities to find that type of staff. Personally would look at ex forces but, unfortunately, some of these are carrying massive baggage.

 

[THL4KEL]

That’s a very good idear in theory but in practice it’s far harder to implement , I have got 5 great guys that work for me , but I have got through a serious lot of wasters in the process , sacked one guy on his first morning before he evan started as he turned up 45 muinits late saying he overslept , no apology or sorry it won’t happen again ,if he’s like that on the first morning what will he be like once he thinks he has his feet under the table . Ime very fair with staff and they like working for me but I won’t take messers as staff or customers, all my staff are ex emergency services workers and all have a good work ethic, they are a good bunch of guys I look after them and they look after my work and are 100% trustworthy which is difficult to find in this day and age .

My old job before I started working I this game was working for oil & gas/Engineering companies 50k plus workforces. My job was the national management of training side of the business. A big part of the job was working for human resource/ internal relations departments basically legally removing under preforming staff from the company.. Basically they needed a lot of boxes ticking so that they could boot out people, that included trouble makers as well i.e. union members.... Training was a big part of providing evidence staff had been given multiple chances.

Was happy not to have to work there in the end..

A lot comes down to really robust interview strategies to get decent people.... Suppose that's why recruitment agencies/ with psychology backgrounds get paid so much money to head hunt staff as they can identify the motivators of why the person wants the job..

 

[scottish cleaning service]

I think its very difficult to win when employing anyone unless you have a good contract. I knew a spraypainter who worked from home and he was doing really well so he decided to rent a unit and employ down the road from his house. He was telling me he is making far less now and has more stress and wished he never expanded. I'm still 7 days a week at moment but with winter coming it's beginning to slow down. I have a few folk to call on if I need a hand but I generally just plod along. It means I can turn work down or bump up the price if I don't want the job which I now do, keep it simple. 

 

[Danfire]

I've toyed many times with taking on staff, expanding and investing. I keep coming to the conclusion that I cannot be doing with the aggravation of managing people.

I'm flat out and could really use some help but I'll just keep refining, making the work more compact, pushing the prices etc. I reckon as a one man band, if I did what I'm doing full-time (not an option due to fire service primary employment) I could turn the windows into something worth an equivalent to a £60k employed role (maybe more). That's sounds ok to me, I know more could be made running a bigger company but I don't think I could take the stress.

 

[dazmond]

I've toyed many times with taking on staff, expanding and investing. I keep coming to the conclusion that I cannot be doing with the aggravation of managing people.

I'm flat out and could really use some help but I'll just keep refining, making the work more compact, pushing the prices etc. I reckon as a one man band, if I did what I'm doing full-time (not an option due to fire service primary employment) I could turn the windows into something worth an equivalent to a £60k employed role (maybe more). That's sounds ok to me, I know more could be made running a bigger company but I don't think I could take the stress.

It's just not worth it though.....I could turnover 60k-70k on my own if I worked full time on the windows but I dont need that much money a year to live a financially comfortable life.....also if I work more than 25-30 hours a week I end up hating it....??

25-30 hours is my sweet spot.....its a good work/life balance for me and I work more efficiently working shorter hours 

 

[steve garwood]

It's just not worth it though.....I could turnover 60k-70k on my own if I worked full time on the windows but I dont need that much money a year to live a financially comfortable life.....also if I work more than 25-30 hours a week I end up hating it....??

25-30 hours is my sweet spot.....its a good work/life balance for me and I work more efficiently working shorter hours 

Totally agree about getting the work/life balance correct.

Don’t want to end up being a saddo and working seven days a week. Much more to life ??‍?

 

[mike007]

Totally agree about getting the work/life balance correct.

Don’t want to end up being a saddo and working seven days a week. Much more to life ??‍?

If someone wants to work 7 days a week and all hours ,they  might as well do so for a employer, then after 40 hours would be on time and a half rising to double time.

 

[Teaboy]

Sounds like they've all got good pensions and working till they can retire. Very hard in big cities to find that type of staff. Personally would look at ex forces but, unfortunately, some of these are carrying massive baggage.

we took on an ex forces lad, safe to say he was the opposite of what we expected (he left with a nickname glass hands)

 

[dazmond]

The people that work 7 days a week usually have a family and are the main breadwinner......the problem is you cant buy back time.....and other areas of your life suffer.....hobbies,relationships(both personal and spending time with friends,etc) because your never around or when you are your tired all the time.....usually after a few years of this your missus starts spending your money even more to cheer herself up(again cos your never around)....before you know shes having an affair......??

 

[THL4KEL]

I used to work in an industry that was seven days a week 12 hours minimum a day, fours weeks on then a week off - fly to work in remote areas. The majority worked in the industry to pay of their mortgage very fast, buy some rental properties and basically set themselves up for life and then a business for themselves. 

The clever ones were set up by 40..

There was a lot though that got addicted to the high income, got themselves into large amounts of debt - very large homes/top of the range motor every four of years/boats/classic cars and motorbikes plus exotic holidays.. 

A lot had bad gambling habits..

A lot of wives get used to that standard of living which it makes it hard for as well for people to take a drop income. 

 

[mupps]

This is basically what I did 10 years ago. Now I only work 3 days a week usually ( sometimes I drag it out over 4 days but it could be done in 3) just me with some nice jobs. To much hassle for me employing people. I’m not that type of bloke. Very content now. No stress. 

Sounds like the perfect work/life balance. I'm in a similar position, however......thanks to the **** August I'm now behind with my cleans so the work has built up again. I guess that's just how it is in this industry. I still really enjoy it though and I'm still picking up new business. I only have the quality work/customers now as I decided some time ago to get rid of the time wasters. 

 

[Markyboy 50]

Sounds like the perfect work/life balance. I'm in a similar position, however......thanks to the **** August I'm now behind with my cleans so the work has built up again. I guess that's just how it is in this industry. I still really enjoy it though and I'm still picking up new business. I only have the quality work/customers now as I decided some time ago to get rid of the time wasters. 

Can’t fault u mate. I’m not chasing the £50/60 k a year. Happy just trotting along at a steady pace, stopping for a cuppa with a customer when I want. No rush in the world of Markyboy. Just taking it easy!