My last “not odd jobs to make ends meet” job I had was project manager of a job shop. I had days where I was meeting with customers, and days when I was building what my customers asked for.
When I had a customer to meet, I showed up early. I considered it a personal demerit if the customer arrived on site before I did.
When I had a thing to build and the customer wanted it on the 18th I’d turn up when I felt like it. Research, ordering parts, CAD design, programming, coordinating with my team and correspondence could and usually did happen from my house. A lot of brain storming took place in the shower. When it was time to show up in the shop I turned up when I felt like it and left when I felt like it. I cannot think of a time when I missed a deadline that was my fault. The deadline I blew the worst was the one I wasn’t told. “I needed it by the 26th.” “Well the 28th was a great time to tell me that.” “I thought you’d get right on it!” “I had five other customers’ projects going, you were 6th in line.”
I genuinely miss the "Here’s a weird goddamn thing to build. I want a radar guided hammer dulcimer. I need the right handlebar shroud of a 1994 Yamaha FSF-400XF. They only made 400 of these bikes, the part fell off somewhere in Wyoming, here’s the left one. You know that scene in spy movies where they need to steal the diamond launch codes from a room full of laser beams? Make an arcade attraction out of that. I need a 3D scan of my stillborn baby.
Actually no I’m never doing that last one ever again god chestnut-roasting dammit.
My last “not odd jobs to make ends meet” job I had was project manager of a job shop. I had days where I was meeting with customers, and days when I was building what my customers asked for.
When I had a customer to meet, I showed up early. I considered it a personal demerit if the customer arrived on site before I did.
When I had a thing to build and the customer wanted it on the 18th I’d turn up when I felt like it. Research, ordering parts, CAD design, programming, coordinating with my team and correspondence could and usually did happen from my house. A lot of brain storming took place in the shower. When it was time to show up in the shop I turned up when I felt like it and left when I felt like it. I cannot think of a time when I missed a deadline that was my fault. The deadline I blew the worst was the one I wasn’t told. “I needed it by the 26th.” “Well the 28th was a great time to tell me that.” “I thought you’d get right on it!” “I had five other customers’ projects going, you were 6th in line.”
I genuinely miss the "Here’s a weird goddamn thing to build. I want a radar guided hammer dulcimer. I need the right handlebar shroud of a 1994 Yamaha FSF-400XF. They only made 400 of these bikes, the part fell off somewhere in Wyoming, here’s the left one. You know that scene in spy movies where they need to steal the diamond launch codes from a room full of laser beams? Make an arcade attraction out of that. I need a 3D scan of my stillborn baby.
Actually no I’m never doing that last one ever again god chestnut-roasting dammit.