day in the life of an industry employee
- Thread starter unskilled
- Start date
Its like any other job. You deal with unruly customers, incompetent co-workers, clueless managers, and countless other frustrations. The only difference is you'll care just that much more about the products you deal with.
This begs the question, if we all think our coworkers are incompetent does that mean we are as well (we're someone's coworker)?
Last edited:
There's always one or 2. I'm sure plenty of people at my job think I'm incompetent. Difference is, I just don't care, and I'm gonna be gone soon.
Or maybe it is me, maybe I'm way off in left field to think that something is wrong when a Fortune 500 company offers no training whatsoever for its employees...
It is 12:20 am, and I am just about to get on my 3 speed and ride home from the office.
I got here around 9 this morning. Friends and customers (invariably the same thing) were in and out of the office all day and I took 2 hours around 5 to go ride with some of the team guys. Stuff I did today included planning and preparing for a cross-country dealer road-trip, negotitating sponsorship deals, working on developing financial instruments, a few minutes of brazing on a proto, a bit of setup time on a new milling machine, washing, checking over and repairing team bikes and my personal bikes from the long weekend, packing and shipping orders, and placing orders for sample parts for complete bikes. I Rode into town with friends to get some dinner, and came back to finish working on some graphics for the tradeshow. If this wasn't bikes, I wouldn't be willing to be here 16 hours a day. Even the horrible or hard aspects are better when the ends justify the means...
I got here around 9 this morning. Friends and customers (invariably the same thing) were in and out of the office all day and I took 2 hours around 5 to go ride with some of the team guys. Stuff I did today included planning and preparing for a cross-country dealer road-trip, negotitating sponsorship deals, working on developing financial instruments, a few minutes of brazing on a proto, a bit of setup time on a new milling machine, washing, checking over and repairing team bikes and my personal bikes from the long weekend, packing and shipping orders, and placing orders for sample parts for complete bikes. I Rode into town with friends to get some dinner, and came back to finish working on some graphics for the tradeshow. If this wasn't bikes, I wouldn't be willing to be here 16 hours a day. Even the horrible or hard aspects are better when the ends justify the means...
minutemen video...cool...
I wake up, run, ride to work, work on $200 to $8000 bikes for 10hrs, ride home, shower, and go to bed.
Tomorrow I have 4 tubulars to glue, 2 frame-up builds, 12hrs worth of repairs, 3 mechanics, 4892349872934 walk-ins, 23450349 warranty issues, and a google phone calls. I won't get it all done.
From 9 - 7, it's non-stop. It can be stressful if you let it get inside your head. Just have to go with the flow.
Tomorrow I have 4 tubulars to glue, 2 frame-up builds, 12hrs worth of repairs, 3 mechanics, 4892349872934 walk-ins, 23450349 warranty issues, and a google phone calls. I won't get it all done.
From 9 - 7, it's non-stop. It can be stressful if you let it get inside your head. Just have to go with the flow.
What it was like for me: sleep in late. Ride single track to work at 1:00-4:00, depending on workload. Make the ride over take an hour or two if I feel like it. 20 min if I'm in a hurry. Do repairs/ builds/ whatever alone for a few hours. At 6:30, all hell breaks loose. Sell ****, fix ****, deal with people for a while. At 9:30 (theoretical closing time), start trying to show people the door. By 10:00, get more aggressive about closing. Finally leave at 10:30. Fire up the lights and ride home on single track. Make it take a couple hours if I feel like it.
In the morning I have to deal with people. In the afternoon I work on bikes. I don't have to talk to anyone except for the UPS guy. Just work on bikes. I like that part. Lunch is always good too.
Spreadsheets, spreadsheets, spreadsheets.
Hours and hours of emails.
Phone calls to Italians in the mornings, then shops, consumers, media folks, Asia in the afternoon.
Tons of nights and weekends around sales meeting and trade show time.
But it keeps me in bikes...
Hours and hours of emails.
Phone calls to Italians in the mornings, then shops, consumers, media folks, Asia in the afternoon.
Tons of nights and weekends around sales meeting and trade show time.
But it keeps me in bikes...
Life in the Service Dept is different from life in sales. Also, bike shops in SoCal are vastly different from bike shops anywhere else. Our season is year-round. I'm not sure where you are, but I didn't think to look before posting.
Here are a few of my Tales from the Bike shop. I came here for the quality of life, and then... left for the quality of life. It was made known to me that I was spending too much time teaching customers about bikes and not enough time "moving units"
so I scaled my hours back to one day a week, and started my own commuter consultant business. 
Tales from the bike shop: Fun with co-workers
Tales from the bike shop: Female logic
Tales from the Bike Shop: It's Just Stan's
Tales from the Bike Shop: Last Days
-sunny
Here are a few of my Tales from the Bike shop. I came here for the quality of life, and then... left for the quality of life. It was made known to me that I was spending too much time teaching customers about bikes and not enough time "moving units"
so I scaled my hours back to one day a week, and started my own commuter consultant business. Tales from the bike shop: Fun with co-workers
Tales from the bike shop: Female logic
Tales from the Bike Shop: It's Just Stan's
Tales from the Bike Shop: Last Days
-sunny
I got some fresh trout today. I am frying them up right now
