Yep, its one of those posts...
In the past, I had clients that had their collective acts together... Not 100% mind you, as you already know from reading some of the past fiascos I've dealt with... However, the season started up a bit early, and since then, I've been working steadily... I should be happy, no?... Well not exactly... The clients this year, so far, seem to all be space cadets... I mean to the extreme... They're all nice people, but good lord I want to start clubbing people with the clue bat... Normally, this would make for excellent blog fodder, but there's a minor catch... I've been hit with so many clueless clients all at once, that not only do I not know where to start, but I simply don't have the time... Hell I'm getting this post up today only because my printer at work keeled over and I had to come home to print out paperwork for tommorow's show... (on a side note, I swear, here and now, that I will never own another Brother printer again... that damn thing has been nothing but trouble since day one...)
On the up side, I get to do paperwork with a pizza, and beer now...
I wonder how many people will miss daylight savings time, and manage to screw up when they come to work for me on this show... Ugh...
Sorry 'bout that folks... I was just a tad bit upset when I typed out that last post... Perhaps one might even say discouraged... At any rate, putting a few days between then and now has allowed me to calm down a bit... I suspect that though they're going to try to run me out of business, they aren't going to... They are going to force us to make some changes in the way we operate... We're still discussing what those changes will be, but at the very least we'll have to raise our labor rates a bit which does suck. We may also have to back away from useing the crews we usually do, and resort to hireing a number of people from a labor company we work with occasionally, as hireing them doesn't contribute to our workers comp bill... We may even dompletely drop workers comp coverage on my partner and I, and pick up personal insurance instead. (and yes, I know that is getting in to the grey area of the law, but we're looking in to that as well) Naturally we'd keep it for the workers, but 95% of the time, the biggest danger to myself is papercuts...
On the plus side, we've started really rolling on the busy season already. It normally kicks off in December, but we're up more than a month early this year. Always a good sign. Not to mention the early revenue is going to help pay for the insurance... What a pain...
Yes, that says bullshit up there...
Warning, this is going to be a major vent/bitch post...
Our workers comp policy renews, every year in June... There's nothing special about that time, except that's when we picked up a policy back when we started out... So every year, they come knocking on our door with their hand out demanding their money for the year, in advance... No payment plan, 100% up front... Now this pisses me off no end every year, but we're used to it now, and we make sure that we have the cash to pay the bloodsuckers when they show up... Every year, they audit our numbers, and adjust our policy accordingly, so every year it goes up... This we expect, and while it's always painful, we can usually deal with it... This year however is special...
Our policy last year cost around 7 grand, without getting into specifics... They came to that number through their audit, based on 3 classifications we fall under in NJ, since there isn't a "stagehand" category here... Those classifications are clerk (office work), carpentry-shop (in our shop), and carpentry-other (on site, away from the shop). We average between 20 and 30 days on site per year, and the rest is in our shop. Sadly, almost half the payroll for the year happens during those days. (not including my partner and I, which I'll get to) So the carpentry-other is the highest rate, and we get reamed as a result. That however is predictable, and I accept that... My partner and I earn perhaps an eighth, or tenth of our income on site, as we are in the shop almost every day. This year, the workers comp department in NJ decided that we earn 100% of our income in the carpentry-other category. They made this decision based on no information other than we own the company, so we must be on the "job site" all the time... The rate is based on a carpentry site, building houses, etc, not working in some cushy ballroom being mostly worried I might choke on a potato chip from the break table... At any rate, they decided we owe them an additional 5 grand... Yea, that runs the tab to 12 grand for the year... 12 grand is a whole lot of cash for my small company, and I can’t easily write a check for that. 5 grand in equipment, I can justify as I get something for that, but insurance that I haven't used (thankfully) is a bit rough... So they have us over a barrel, and while we are fighting the re-classification, we decided to make the payment, so our coverage wouldn't lapse...
That was where we were this morning... Early this afternoon, the insurance company called, saying they were going to drop us if we didn't pay by the 29th... Ok, so I'm thinking they're just being pricks... Well turns out, they want not only the additional 5 grand for this year, but they want an additional 5 grand for last year. You may note that it is October, and our policy is up in June... So now, I'm looking at not only 5 grand, but 10 grand out of pocket based on incorrect assumptions by some clerical worker in some government building someplace in New Jersey. We can't even find out who we are supposed to be protesting this to... The insurance agent was shocked that we were going to fight this... Apparently he's never heard of anyone doing that before... Now, here's the kicker... I can't even look for another insurance company, because my rates are set by the state... I can get a different name on the top of the policy, but that doesn't actually do me any good...
We have always wanted to run our company above a shadow of a doubt when it comes to money/insurance/legal matters... Well guess what... I now have to wonder if I can actually do that at this point... My employees haven't gotten a raise in years, and while we are still paying at least as good as any shop in the area, we used to be way above everyone... My clients have seen the labor cost go up every year from me, because of increasing insurance costs. Now, with this kind of increase, I will need to raise my labor billing again. We're already more expensive than most shops in the area, this will put us way out of competitive numbers... This is basically on the verge of putting us out of business... Unless we can find some way around this, and that would mean dropping in to the gray area of legal, this may be the beginning of the end for my company...
You want to know why people "go postal"?... It has been my one and only dream for a long time to have a shop of my own... Now, the insurance industry, and the fucking beurocracy in Trenton is not just stepping on that dream, they're just about on the edge of killing it... You crush someone's dreams, and just how much do they have left?... So no, I'm not going to make that 30 minute drive down there and start gunning people down, I'd just end up getting people that had nothing to do with this most likely... But, ya know, I sure can begin to understand why someone might do it...
I suppose I will never again be able to complain about driving across Pennsylvania as being boring again... Without a doubt, Nebraska, followed closely by Iowa, and Colorado take the prize in my book now... Nothing against those states really, they're just big, relatively flat (not as flat as I had imagined though, thankfully) and sparsely populated... They've got huge long stretches of straight road that could put a coke addict to sleep... Nebraska and Colorado also have some fees they charge to drive through them with a commercial vehicle, or purchase fuel for that vehicle... I'm still looking in to that scam since I can't get my head around having to pay a fee to simply enter a state... I'm not talking toll bridges and tunnels here folks...
All in all it was a pretty uneventful trip... I'll do the run down on the show and drive next time, but for the moment, I'm off to take a nap...
Ok folks, if you're reading this, it's because I'm on the road to, or from the job we're doing in Colorado... Backstage has not shut down, though I admit to being somewhat slow in my posting... Yes, Backstage will return to the normal venting and complaints once the season really starts rolling, and I am not out on the road. (boy do I need to get a laptop so I can do this while I'm gone...)
Thanks for stopping by...
It's been a while since I vented on Home Depot... I imagine that is primarily because we've been shut down over the summer... I've been there several times now since I started working on the prep for my Colorado show, and I'm already dreading the thought of having to go again... This goes above and beyond the level of dislike I've had for them for years... They've gone and elevated their level of suckiness lately...
Since they drove Woodworkers Warehouse out of business, I don't have a good source of router bits and saw blades that I like... For a while Home Depot was carrying my preferred saw blades, but that seems to have changed... They have always carried crappy router bits... Well, the only redeeming quality of their router bits was I could run in, grab what I need and get out... Not any more... Now they have locked up the display... Now hang with me a moment... The bit comes in one of those really hard to open plastic cases. (you know, the kind you can cut yourself to ribbons just trying to open once you've bought it) Inside the case, the bit is slid through a loop, and they used to be zip tied in place so they were a bit of a pain to get out, but manageable... Now, they've added hot glue on top of the zip tie so it's damn near impossible to pull the bit out without cutting yourself on the sharp edges of the bit... On top of all this there is one of those damn electronic widgets that set off the alarm if you walk out without de-activating it at a register first...
Ok, so why are they locking these things up?... Well logic says to prevent theft right?... That's what I'm guessing... But let me ask you this. How the hell am I supposed to steal a bit I can barely get out of the fucking case, when they have that damn alarm chip in there, and all the bits are in the confined tool area to begin with?... Must I now deal with finding a "helpful associate" to unlock a crappy cage?... The majority of the "helpful associates" can't even identify what a router bit is, let alone know where they are kept... I don't want to have to educate these morons that 1) the router bits are in the tool area, 2) yes, they're very expensive (geee golly wilbur) 3) no, I do not want to special order something, I want the fucking store to stock what is listed on the display, 4) be forced to chat with the "helpful associate" 5) have to wait until the "helpful associate" has just given sage advise to some complete idiot about what tool brands are high quality, since they're usually recommending some kind of garbage their manager told them to push...
Normally, I'd sit here and type that Lowes home centers are no better... In this case, they are... In the past few months, they opened up the tool areas in to aisles, put the router bits in a cabinet that isn't locked, and stopped forcing me to have to find someone to take it off the rack... I'm sure they'll swing the other way again, but for now, its so much more pleasant going there than Home Depot...
Early next week, I have to get in a 24' truck with a pile of gear, and drive it to Colorado... For the moment, I don't want to go in to the logic of me shipping gear I could rent down the road from the venue... I'm not even sure if there is logic, but at any rate I have to do this now... The vent of the day involves the lack of information I'm getting on this one...
I stumbled on the minor fact that load in is not in fact 8am as the producer informed me... It is in fact 10pm of that same day... Let's just for a moment ignore that there is a meeting in the morning I need to be ready for since I can probably do the in, and make it happen... The killer here is the labor I booked for 8am... If I hadn't caught this one, I'd have a number of crew members waiting there at 8am to load in this gear... I'd be stuck paying them for the day, and sending them home, and who knows if there would be a way to get a crew at 10pm that night... While I could probably swing that miracle here, I don't know anyone out there... Nobody owes me any allegiance out there, nor would I expect them to go out of their way to help...
I swear, if I don't fall asleep driving across the plains and die, this client may not make it through the show week if I get hit with any more surprises... (any tips for staying awake on those long straight roads folks? they're going to be a first for me... the roads on the east coast meander like spaghetti, so its easy to stay alert)