What stresses you out?

[JediMAC]

My work's been stressing the **** outta me lately, specifically the fact that we're always running over budget on all of our auditing jobs.  We seem to intentionally low-ball our estimates of completion to our clients, in order to land the job in the first place.  Then we blow through our entire budget about HALF way through the job, and after that the **** hits the fan and the stress level goes up immensely.  We even kid ourselves (or at least the partners do) into thinking we can achieve these phony budgets we throw out there.  Then it lands on all of us grunts who actually DO the work.

Get it done faster!  Be more efficient!  Are you done yet?  Are you done yet?!  Are you done yet?!  The client's getting impatient, and upset at the charges, and won't pay anything more until they see a finished product or settlement check.  So hurry up!  Get it done, but don't work on it anymore, or we'll have to bill them more money which they'll refuse to pay.  Pretty much a Catch-22 all the way around...   

Plus the fact that we have to keep approximately 90% of our hours worked during the day as billable.  Yet if we work more billable hours, we have to charge the clients for it, and then we get yelled at for being overbudget.  Etc, etc, etc...  Deadly cycle, and an extremely stressful one on pretty much a daily basis around here.

On the homefront, painting stresses me out.  I don't mind doing it really, but with my meticulous and perfectionist ways, painting just one room can take me an entire week (or more).  Painting the whole interior of the house, which is my current undertaking, is completely overwhelming at this point.  When I start feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, I tend to shove the project aside and procrastinate.  That of course drives the wife nuts, then I get prodded and scolded by her, which in turn stresses me out even more.  And don't even suggest we get painters, or I get some help with the project, 'cause my OCD won't allow anyone else (including my wife) to assist with the painting.

Then of course driving often stresses me out, but we often discuss that in the "Things that piss you off" thread, so I'll not get into that one here...

Those are just the couple main points of stress in my life right now.  There's plenty of smaller ones though (like when the Lakers lose), but I'm not going to nitpick those just yet.

So what stresses you guys out, on either a daily, or less consistent basis?

[jjks]

Maybe you wouldn't go over budget so often if you'd scale back the number of "business dinners" at Hooters with forum members clients

 

[JediMAC]

Hey, I only ran $20 of that through today.  I'm out at least another $50 on that night alone!  Maybe I should've cut back on the Guinnesses just a bit though, eh?   

At least none of the Hooters waitresses were wearing John Deere t-shirts.  Thank God for that!

I guess I could add that being so far away from the Wildcats bar in Nashville really stresses me out too.  The withdrawals are nearly making my head explode.   

[jjks]

To answer your question, the thing that's stressing me out right now is also work related, but relates more to career direction.

I love my job, work with fantastic people, have good job security and benefits, but don't feel I'm paid competively and am afraid I've hit a glass ceiling in terms of advancement. I've moved up quickly through the company, but we recently hired someone from the outside (who I directly report to) that I'm afraid is going to stand in my way of future advancement. My boss is a great guy to work for, and his wife has all but adopted me and has me over to dinner all the time, but he's only a couple of years older than me and doesn't plan on going anywhere anytime soon.

That said, I just got turned on to a job at UPS that would be doing EXACTLY what I'm doing now, but is in Kentucky. They're rolling out the same warehouse management system that my company uses, and are in need of a project manager for implementation, support, etc. That's been my job for the last three years, so I'm more than qualified for it, but I don't know what it pays. I'm certain it pays more than I'm currently making, but don't know if it pays enough to make me even consider Kentucky. The nice thing about it would be that it would probably open doors to relocation elsewhere, and might be a way to get back to California (if that's even what I want).

I'm in the middle of turning in a resume for it right now, and at least want to see what type of pay it offers, but that's definitely what's stressing me out right now.

[jokabofe]

Pretty much the work thing is stressing me out, and has been for a long, long time. I went to a trade school to learn some computer programming and ****, spent $13,000 or so and a year and a half of my life learning some stuff. In the meantime, I took a job with a friend of mine in a small mom-and-pop electronics store. Just while I was going to school, since the school had a job assistance program. Well, apparently their idea of job assistance was looking in the newspaper and at the job sites online, and then e-mailing me jobs that were in the field I was looking for work in. I took that job almost 6 years ago, and I'm still working there now.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that I picked a career that really had already gone through it's explosion - computer programming, and java in particular - so now I have the good fortune of trying to compete for entry level jobs, with no work experience in my field, against programmers that have been doing this sort of work for years, and have recently lost their own jobs. Fun, fun, fun. Maybe I'll go back to school for some more computer training... lets see, what market has already fizzed out that I can go dump another $13K into?

Oh, and just as a btw - I'm still paying off that student loan, and will be for a long, long time to come.

[Jesse James]

I have a managerial accounting course this semester that I'm wrapping up, and I've already had some experience with setting budgets and stuff...  Sounds like it is intentional for budgets to ALWAYS be under.  Just my opinion (uneducated on your specific business Matt) I guess.  Probably are just doing it to get the business in.

I'd wager that's relatively competitive to get the clients.

Anyway, what stresses me out...

-Professors who dump work on you without a care as to your other workloads.

-Professors who take their classes (which are requirements) seriously when in reality they don't apply to your major nor do they broaden you as an indivdual.

-Being on time...  I'm terrible about simply WORRYING about being on time.  If I'm running late it f's up everything for me, and can ruin an otherwise normal day.

-Exams/quizzes/graded work.  In the waning days of the semester I'm getting dumped with work.  Today I had a budgeting (cash and production) quiz for MA, and a hefty exam for the aforementioned BS course.  Topping it off I am sick, and in my THIRD class I had today I had a review for the exam on the Tuesday following T-Giving (Financial course).  I've also got one more exam before finals (In the MA course), my term paper due in the BS course, and my finals then to boot!

-My health...  I'm not overly healthy, and neither is my family (mother/father) so I'm struggling with my own health as well as theirs.  Things are levelling off for them but I'm to the point I need a break.

-My car...  I've had a roof leak since the big hurricane hit this area and flooded things.  I've needed to get that fixed but haven't had time.  I also have yet to wash/wax my car since summer which is really bugging the hell out of me because it's the first good car I've owned and I'm hell bent on making it last the long-haul.

And that's just a general list of things I spend dwelling upon.  Of course school stuff's weighing on me.  It always has and always will.  It's really terrible when I'm sick as a dog like I was today.  I've picked up some kind of flu, just in time for the last 2 to 3 weeks of class.  Yay.   

[stormtripper]

I think there is a pattern here>>>
The biggest stress I have is that I am a term employee, I have been working for the Government now coming up to 3 years... I keep getting extended and extended, but I am holding out for my indetermanient status. It sucks because I don't want to get in over my head with big purchaces like a house, new car or all 12 VOTC figs
Other then that things are pretty groovy. My job is capped out, so its not going to be getting any more difficult, if I want to advance I will have to move away which isn't out of the question. It sure beats having logs beinging hoisted over your head in the hatch of a vessel, I used to work as a longshoremen, it was great pay but way to dangerous for my liking. I had my leg snapped in 2 like a twing, so I decided that was the end of that.

[Jesse James]

I worked briefly in the steel mills in my home town ST, so I can sympathize with the risks involved in labor.  Just this past year a man was crushed by a roll falling off a truck.  Pushed a guy out of the way, and took the roll across his lower torso and legs. 

I'm glad I was long gone and didn't see that.

He was retiring in '05 too...  Now won't see it.

I worked near a blast furnace, and one day I had my goggles off (they were scratched and hard to see with) so the Super Intendant saw me and lectured me...  Said, "What if this furnace blows and you don't have your safety gear on" (referring to my goggles), and I simply told him that he wouldn't be able to scrape my eyes up off the floor then.  If the furnace blew it'd be about all they would've found.

Not fun work...  Good pay if you're union and there a while, but not good work at all.

[JediMAC]

...but don't know if it pays enough to make me even consider Kentucky. The nice thing about it would be that it would probably open doors to relocation elsewhere, and might be a way to get back to California (if that's even what I want).

Better not move out of Nashville, you dumbass!  How else am I gonna find my way back there to hang out at Wildcats with you?!

I suppose I could tolerate a relocation to SoCal for ya', but screw Kentucky.  WTF's out there, you clown?!   

C'mon man.  Use your freakin' head Jamie.  You've gotta think about your friends first, regardless of what that means for your future...   

[Jesse James]

Why doesn't anyone wanna move to Pittsburgh?  Cost of living is like nothing, and I'm here.  That should be more than enough. 

You knobs won't even visit me. 

[Ben]

I'm considering emptying my paltry 401(k) and going to film school.

But I'm quite concerned whether or not I'll be able to work in the field afterwards.

I've also considered using the money to buy a digital video camera, but then I'd need all sorts of other **** that'll cost me nearly $20,000.

[Darby]

Health.  It's like fighting a war with an enemy you can't see or defeat.   The toll it takes on you and your family. 

And trying to get a book published.  It's kind of like walking up to people and having them run away from you.

[Mikey D]

A lot of work related stress here.  Doesn't surpise me, as my wife is costantly stressed out about her career.  I always tell her to chill out and relax. Everything works out in the end.  For me, my job isn't really all that stressful.  Sure, it gets hectic from time to time, especially on bid day, but it's nothing to get psycho about.  I guess working for a good company, with great people and having a lot of flexible helps that.

For me, home improvement stresses me out.  We're in the process of remodeling our basement (soon my collection is to be free of the boxes they've been in for the last few years) and everyday it's something new.  From me forgetting how to frame a door opening (embarrassing to say the least, as I work in construction, but hey I burned those brain cells off soon after I learned house framing in college ) to multiple trips to Home Depot in a day because I need something I didn't pick up the last hundred times I've been there.  But soon, it's all going to be worth it - My own man room geek town with a bar, big screen TV, pool table and thousands of dollars worth of toys.

[DSJ™]

No stress where I work.   

[Famine]

Not having a job can be as stressful as having one. I'm trying to get employed, and have been applying all over the place, anywhere where I wont get shot or die or anything like that, making all the appropriate callbacks, etc, and I get **** in return, and in turn, I get heat from my family for being jobless, so it's a cluster**** of not having work and getting **** for not having one. I have money, that's not the issue, it's the fact that I'm unemployed for 2 months now.

 Also seeing the people you love put themselves in bad situations over and over again, in a cycle also hurts, and stresses me to no end. No wonder why I'm going completley grey.

I've got a bad feeling about this.

Kevin
Kevin