I gave this letter to my boss, and the owner last Wednesday.
They loved it.I’m in the RV repair/collision repair of motor homes.Most of the manufacturers have already bankrupted.I was able to go in two hours early, and go in and get overtime on Saturdays.Several employees have already been laid off.My overtime is gone for now.So I voluntarily told them I would do the overtime for free off the clock.I told the other employees if they wanted to help keep the business, and their jobs they might come in at 4:AM with me, I had no takers. What has kept us from going under is doing excellent repairs to make the customer happy, and word of mouth.It’s really scary when we always had forty units waiting for repair, now sometimes the holding lot is almost empty.
Too bad. My dad went tinto the oil field back in 1919 direct from a dair farm. He worked as a roughneck for a 12 “tower”, and then overnight kept the boilers going for another company, sleeping besides them, for another twelve hours. This for $10 a day , which was a lot for those days But he sent half of it back home to his mother. He soon worked up to driller and to superindent of a small drilling company. Much the same story for lots of men who went into the oil business. When he was running the show with ten rigs he often spent 48 hours straight on the job, pitching in sometimes by working as a hand when someone failed to show.
you are a smart man
I agree there's a bit of the wrong tone here. I spent many years making a number of people and their companies richer as I worked my butt off for them. I got the better end of the deal. I learned, all they got was money.
My employees, like my customers are people I care very much about. This wouldn't work without them. Of course I haven't "made it" like the guy in the story. I'm working way harder than anyone I pay by the hour could ever be expected to. I'm using the talents I've been given along with the drive I've mustered to hopefully make a better future for myself, my employees, and my customers.
Isn't that the way it works?
I imagine most employers were once employees themselves. And as I can remember my basic mindset as a junior high school student, I'm fully aware that employees don't focus as sharply as I do, being the employer. I'm willing to accept the old 'hazard of the trade' also applies when the trade is being the employer. Some people never learn, some have talents that overshadow their deficiencies, others just bug me, and some I wish I could make cloned copies of. Customers come in a variety of sizes and flavors too. That's how it is.
Not one of my employees or my customers thinks I'm some kind of a fat cat because they know I'm not. If anything, they probably hope we can keep whatever we're doing, going.
And at this point, that's the master plan.
Gross sales for 1st 1/4 2009 up in record territory.