Behind the 8 and running late

For the last two days, I have been in the office and it has been crazy busy, which is interesting considering I am likely to be furloughed at some point soon. I have bitten off a little more work than I can chew and I really hate being so far behind the eight ball and, it looks like I am going to have to work through Easter a fair bit to make up for it.

While I understand clients have time schedules, it is interesting to note that some are not factoring in the conditions at all, even though they know that they are at a limited capacity themselves. For me, some of the things have to be done at the office, but with my wife working remotely and my daughter home, getting to the office is no easy feat at times - this is my third day in 3 weeks.

I am a bit stressed

So I will write to clear my head a little and get my mind onto other things. As said, writing is therapy and after putting a few hundred words down, I find that I am much calmer as it gives some distance between me and whatever is going on and I can reflect a little.

As I mentioned the other day, there is the potential that my salary will be cut and replaced with share options and that looks like it will happen. Many companies are just reducing salaries or forcing layoffs and I think it is a better option to give ownership, although not everyone agrees.

They put a survey out with a list of options, and the share option wasn't highly supported, people would rather by laid-off. The reason is, that they won't have to work, but due to the public support, most will take only a little less income than if they did. The social service system is great in Finland and encourages people to stay home...

Essentially in my experience, most people would rather not work and earn less, than work and get that extra, and I believe that this costs people a great deal. For example, if made redundant, there is a 400 day period of something like 75% pay from the government - and people will only take on new work if it is significantly higher. The problem is, by the time they get close to the end of the 400 days during a recession period, most jobs are gone and they have been out of the game for a year and a half. I know several people who have struggled since 2011 to find decent work who did this, and at the time, it was 500 days.

But, it is part of the game, where people try and optimize their income and minimize their work simultaneously. The flaw in their process comes from them optimizing their current income, not what they could be on in the future. By limiting their work, they are also limiting their skillset, their relationships and their access to opportunity.

For me, I think that while I will stress for the next week due to the workload, I will still continue working as much as I can and see if I can build a foundation for the future. The salary cut is an opt-in process and I do not think that many will opt that way as they will feel that for whatever percentage (between 10 and 20) they will be working for free. It is common these days that people don't work for free - which is why there are so few entrepreneurs, because in order to build a business, most of the work is unpaid. The benefits come later, sometimes much later.

This is part of the investment and it often requires monetary input at the start without any guarantees that there will be a positive return of any kind. When I started my business, there were thousands of euros of various "set up" cost that had to be covered months before there was an income of any kind. I was lucky, as I already had work ongoing, so the time frame between start and paid invoices was only about 2 months - but they didn't cover the initial outlay at that point.

The interesting thing now is, because I have my business that earns "something" despite the conditions, I do not qualify for the same kinds of support, so even if I wanted to, I can't really stop working anyway. But even if I could lay myself off, it would mean the loss of my clientele and i may never get them back. Instead, I am trying to keep as many contact lines open as possible and postponing, rather than cancelling.

It is all pretty stressful at the moment

Luckily though, I am not a believer in stress being bad, so I should be fine. It isn't a lot of fun to have the work, business, house and many family conditions to cope with all at once, but it has to be done.

In some way, I would be quite happy to be laid-off for a few months and have a break, as i haven't had much of a holiday for many years now, other than the odd bits and pieces scattered where I can grab them. Next week was supposed to be my wife and I's first weekend away in 4 years, but that has been cancelled due to Covid-19. Instead, we will likely be renovating the house.

Speaking of, that is what I am meant to be doing this weekend too, but now i m unsure how much I can actually get done with so much other work on my plate. I think however, I will take a rest from the work tonight, go home and perhaps spend a bit of time in front of the TV or writing.

Stress doesn't kill - death does.

Taraz
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