Episode #110: Dealing with Stress on the Jobsite
Hello, and welcome to a, another episode of the construction corner podcast. I'm Dylan, I'm your host and guys. So moving forward, we're going to have a brand new show for you. Basically, it's going to be brand new show and still The Construction Corner podcast. But the change in format is going to be one that I hope all of you are going to thoroughly enjoy.
So we're going to have a cohost Matt Vetter, who was previously on the show. So you want to go back and listen to the episode I did with Matt, learn all about his story, what he's doing at Shaffer construction. You can go and check all of his stuff out, but moving forward, Matt, you're going to be our new co-hosts.
So welcome to The Construction Corner Podcast.
Dylan. Thank you. I'm super excited, man. This is going to be fun. And I'm excited to see where this takes us. It's going to be kind of a neat ying and yang with you being on the design engineering side and me being on the construction side.
So here we go, which is why I think it would work out really well.
Absolutely
cool. So, all right guys today, Matt and I, we've been. You know, we hear things that are going on in the world. You've probably got some crazy stuff that's going on your job sites, let alone the rest of the world, but we wanted to kind of open up it's going to be a little bit of a can of worms, but we think it's important.
And the thing that we want to talk about today is stress, stress management and coping with stress. As the construction industry, one of the biggest. Four suicides, which we'll do another like mental health show at some point in specifics for construction. But in coping with stress is kind of the big topic that we wanted to talk about today.
And how it applies to you in your life and how we can I'll let you kinda start it here on. Maybe ways that you've been dealing with stress here lately. Like what's, what's some of the tactics that you've dealt with just in your, let's just say personal life first, and then we can dive into you know, the job site side of it.
Yeah. So, you know, personally there there's all kinds of stuff to be stressed out about these days, you know, coming off of the last, almost 11 months of the year, the strangest new world that I could ever imagine with COVID to everything going on in politics and, you know, potentials with the economy. I think it's, it's really easy to get overwhelmed and to let some of this stuff build up and, you know, it can, it can build up to an unhealthy point real quickly, you know?
And it's, it's relevant today. It's relevant tomorrow. I think it'll, you know, there's always going to be something, but I think we need to kind of pick apart. How to, how to break it down and at least limit the effects personally first. And then, then outside in our, in our peer groups, in our, our, you know, business groups, employee groups, or whatever it may be.
I think it's, it's incredibly important to get it to the surface.
Yeah. And that's, it's a super good point. Right? You gotta be able to control yourself first, write your own internal dialogue. What you're consuming, what you're. Kind of reading if you're within you. And because a lot of that, you know, let's just say that things aren't good at home, right? Like you're having in this.
I mean, again, these are tips, like we're talking about like a COVID world, virtual, whatever. But this is applies really in any, any time, any decade thinking at all that, if you're having, let's say problems at home, like your, maybe your kids are acting out or. You're just having marital problems or whatever it might be that tends to bleed over into the rest of your life.
Right? So if you have problems at home and then you go to a job site and somebody says something to you, and it didn't come off super good. You're probably going to react poorly to that thing. So first and foremost, get your own house in order. Right. Figure out your own personal stuff. You know, why are you reacting to things poorly?
What's wrong in your life? Are you going down too many rabbit hole, correct? The lack of internet, black bowls, Wikipedia loops, you know, whatever that might be for you. Are you going down too many of those and that just, you know, put you in a bad head space and it takes some awareness to go through that.
But I think that that's the first and most important thing. Before we get to like the job site and how you're act to other people.
Yeah, for sure. I think, I think at the end of the day, those personal sides of it are probably the easier ones to fix in most cases. You know, if, if you're, if you're having a problem with your spouse, we'll work it out, you know, communicate more.
If you're having problems with your kids, figure out what's going on. The, the Wikipedia and the internet. Rabbit holes that stuff's just not healthy. You know, you I'm guilty of it just as much as anybody else from time to time, but I've really tried to, to segregate myself away from some of the chaos out there for the last couple of months, at least because it'll eat you alive if you spend too much time on it.
So I guess I think that, you know, those sort of things are pretty easy or easier at least to control in a way. And, and to at least to start, start making it better for yourself.
Which then leads to the job site. And one of the things that I always came across is in, I mean, and this goes to both sides of the fence that you feel you got to respond immediately, right?
You feel that you have to respond quickly, you know, everything's in a rush, in a hurry and you might send something off without thinking through it. And that one that causes undue stress. And you're like, I got to respond and you're, you know, like. Junkie, right. Trying to send that, send that email, right.
Respond to that thing have inbox zero. And that just causes a lot of anxiety when, you know, it's more than likely like an hour is going to be okay. Right. Like you were in a meeting and probably didn't even see most of those emails. Nobody like, you know, you weren't worrying if they really needed you to call you.
Even then it can take some time. So I guess Matt, for. How you deal with this on the, you know, since you're on job sites more often than I am these days you know, what are some of those maybe job site approaches through like one email? I think that's probably the biggest one.
Email's huge. And that's a really hard one for me personally, because, you know, as an owner, I, I spend a lot of my time in, in my office.
And so I'm always in front of the email. It's really easy to get wrapped up in as soon as your, you know, your computer dings to go and quit, whatever you're working on immediately go find the email and but you kind of nailed it. If, if it's really that important that it can't wait an hour or, or even half a day, someone's going to call me.
And if it's, if it's critically important and I don't answer my phone, they're going to call me again and they're going to call me again. And, you know, frankly, that that's one of the, one of the rules I have with my kids and my wife is that. You know, I don't answer my phone all the time when they call me during the day, but if anything's ever wrong, call me again and keep calling.
And if I see my phone going, you know, going nuts, I'm going to pick it up pretty soon. So. But I guess back to my point of email, getting on the job sites for me is difficult because I'm there. I want to be engaged with my superintendent and ends with the subs with, with everybody there and checking out progress and whatnot.
But I find myself all the time doing the, you know, the one hand, a dance with my phone, trying to type and answer emails as I'm, as I'm walking around a job site, which. Isn't the best example to set from a safety perspective, but it also just isn't necessary, but it's so easy to fall trap to that. You know, there's nothing, I I've never received an email that was of such grave importance that it couldn't have waited, but to try and teach yourself that and, and, and discipline yourself to do that is, is pretty difficult.
I think, especially this day and age, you know, I'm, I'm a little older than you, but. You know, I'm still of the mindset where when I came up through school originally in high school, we didn't have all of this. And, you know, as I've grown professionally, we've had email, we've had smartphones, all this neat stuff in our day, but I've seen kind of both sides of it.
And sometimes you it makes me wonder, you know, maybe we, maybe we have a little too much.
And I think that comes to, so there's a few things that were really good in there. One was safety, right? And paying attention to the thing in front of you, which also leads into productivity, right? Like if you're focused on the thing in front of you, you're going to do great job on that and you're not going to have to come back to it.
And that also means that you're, you know, the jobs that you're going to be safe. So you're going to work in a safe, aware manner of the thing that you're doing. Which again allows you to do it right the first time and not have to come back to it. So I think, again, it's focus, it's clarity of thought it's being present, where you are and aware, especially on a job site of everything that's going on around you.
If you're looking at your phone or lost and where else, right. Focused on what you're doing, you know, there's a lot of things that can happen, you know, in an instant especially on the job site.
Yeah, and I will go ahead and I'm personally guilty of if I see guys doing what I just said, I do all the time. I'll call them out for it. You know, this last summer we had an instance where one of our iron workers was walking around on a roof. He wasn't clipped in and he was on his cell phone and. I kind of poked my superintendent and said, somebody needs to handle this now because otherwise I'm going to handle it.
And it doesn't usually end well that way, but you know, stuff like that, we, we can't have it to think of the, the disaster that could happen in a blink of an eye by being so foolish as to be, you know, texting or checking an email on a rooftop. You know, it's just, it's crazy to me.
Yeah. And I mean yeah, recently in the news, I don't know if you saw this.
It was on construction. Dive that a, I think he was a steelworker at sofa, the new stay in there in LA. Yeah, they have a super cool new like jumbo card. Have you seen them?
Yes, it's, it's pretty wild.
Huge. It's like a Volvo that's. I think it's 10 yards wider on each side of the field 4k, each side, you know, big Oculus.
But they had a guy that was working at sofa. I don't know if he, well, he obviously wasn't clipped in, but fell off the roof and died at sofa. So it's stuff like that where you know, luckily those are getting fewer and fewer these days than some of the construction projects. Yes. Years past. But I mean, they, they still can happen.
Yeah. And you know, it always makes me kind of smile and wonder at the same time when you see those, those old pictures of the guys, you know, building New York city, the black and whites, and there's, you know, 15 guys sitting up on an IB. 300, some feet in the air eating lunch with no, no ropes, no harnesses, no nothing to see where we've come to today.
And, and you know what, while when injuries and incidents happen, they're terrible. But like you mentioned, luckily, they seem to be fewer and farther between.
Yeah, I mean, so I think a lot of this in. You know, dealing with stress is the topic of the day, right. And comfortable with stress, but it's also a lot of stress and self-produce, you know, by trying to respond to email by trying to do too much at once.
And you know, I get it right. There's a lot of projects, a lot of people that want stuff, they want it now. But more than likely they don't need it now. And a lot of that, they, they say ASAP, but you know, deep. And this might be the question ask, when do you really need it? You know, when are you going to use this information?
Is it in two days? Okay, can I get it to you tomorrow or in two days? And I think that it's not necessarily pushback, but those pointed questions aren't always asked to see when people actually need information.
Definitely. And again, I keep throwing myself under the bus, but I see myself doing this with my, with my guys, with my employees a lot, you know, I'll especially come end of the month when I'm working on invoicing and monthly reporting and I'll fire off an email and I'll sit here counting the second. It's like, well, when am I going to get my answer?
I need this now. Realistically, I'd probably have a few days before I actually need it. But I've kind of. And a train myself in my head. Well, this is important to me, so it's gotta be important to everybody else, even though it, it really isn't, you know, I need my guys realistically to be focusing on what they're doing and producing and building buildings.
So there there's definitely a there's some give and take to it.
Yeah. And I think that it's important to remember in like receivers emails, especially like three hours. There was one, one guy, one owner that we work for a hospital system that he, he had very odd, like hours that he worked. So he managed all the construction for this hospital system and, you know, hundreds, millions of dollar’s worth of stuff, but he would work.
Kind of in the mornings and then like the afternoons you'd spend it with his kids. Right. He'd go to all their stuff. So for about like two, three o'clock till probably six was like a dead zone for him. Cause he was with family, but then you would get emails from like nine and 10 o'clock or two in the morning.
Right. That's just when he was working and going through stuff, but it was convenient for him, but he didn't expect the response to am. It was just when he was working through stuff. So it's to remember that a lot of people are different work hours. They have different times. They have different things that they work through stuff, and they're sending it.
They're sending that email out because that's, it's on their mind. It needs to get done. And it's just a checklist for them. But for you again, like when did they need that information you can respond? You know, probably within a day works for most people. You know, and it's a timely response to everybody.
So that you can move on with, with everything else, but just kind of understood, especially like off-hours emails, you know, it's somebody that's thinking about it. Right. They finally got to it. They've been in meetings all day and they just needed to send it so that it didn't get forgotten about. But it isn't for you to respond to immediately they're by and large, not looking for a response, you know, can
I that's exactly right.
And it's hilarious because I do that, you know, my days get, get swallowed up with meetings and, you know, I get scatterbrained my, my best ideas come when I'm in the shower. So if I don't remember it again, you know, it'll never happen. And I can always tell who our newest employees are because you know, I'll start rattling off emails at 10 o'clock at night, sometimes. And by no means, do I want them looked at or thought about until the next morning, but all of a sudden I start getting responses from somebody and like, Oh boy, now I feel bad. Cause I'm taken away from their, their family time. But you know, sometimes it's just a, it's just a brain dump for me. I get it out of my head now.
Cause if I don't, by the time I wake up in the morning, there's a whole new list of stuff going on and I'll never remember, but it, it, it, it certainly it's amusing to see when you start getting the responses.
Yeah. And I think that's, you know, for everybody out there it's so remember like in corresponding with your teams to like let them know, right.
Like even putting a PS in there, like, Hey PS you don't need to respond to this right now. Right? Like it's okay. Or just getting this out of my head, that type of stuff to just let everybody know, like, Hey. You know, answer this eventually, if it needs an answer. But it couldn't be just like, I need to get this out.
We'll talk about this, like on Monday or whatever.
Yeah. And I've told my guys, you know, all of our employees that after five o'clock, six o'clock don't respond to anything from me. Don't even look at your phone. If I need you, I know how to get ahold of you. And if there's a building on fire, I'll get ahold of you and it won't be through email that's for sure.
So just put it down and unplug and you know, that's kind of one of the best coping methods I've found. I think when dealing with job related stress, especially is just, you got to force that unplug and I force it on, on. You know, our, our employees at Schaefer construction I don't force it on myself as much as I should, but it makes a huge difference when you can, you know, pick a time, whatever time that may be.
Just turn the phone up, shut the laptop, engage with your family or a book or whatever it is you need to do, but put the work out of your head. Cause it's, it'll still be there regardless in the morning.
Yeah. And for. Most of us, you know, listening, right. Leadership roles and management roles. We're, we're paying more to think we are to do.
Right. And if you're your stress is, or if you're stressed, you're anxious or not thinking clearly, right. You're going a million different directions than your thinking mechanism. The thing that you're ultimately really paid for, right. And thinking of new ideas, ways to execute. What the team meets, do strategy plan, all that stuff, moving forward.
You're not going to be as effective at what you do, not going to be as great at it, which means you're going to be less likely for promotion or the next thing that you're looking for. But ultimately like people in management positions you're paid to think, right. You're not paid to necessarily swing a hammer or bend pipe or dig a ditch.
Right. Not to say that you can't, but you're paid to think so. All that being said, like reducing the stress, increases your creativity muscle. Right. It allows you to just daydream about stuff. So like for you, Matt, as an owner, right. I am too, like, we think about our business all the time, but it's in, what's next in a creative space.
Not necessarily in like, what emails do we need to send, even though I'm sure that, you know, that comes up too, but it's always in a more creative function. And I think we, in the more that we're in that, right. Is that, I mean, has there ever been a time that you've been creative and just pissed off?
Like it doesn't happen? Probably not, not, not creative in the right way anyways, you don't come up with the best outcomes when you start thinking and you're, and you're angry to begin with.
I think in business too, especially from the ownership side, you know, some stress is good. I want to make that really clear too. I think that if I lived a completely. Quote, unquote stress-free existence. I'd be bored to tears. You know, I like the chaos of, of construction. I've been doing it for a long time now, and I kind of thrive off of that, that lack of monotony, I guess.
So I, I think, you know, stress is not always a bad thing. You just have to be able to control it and. And you don't want to get to the point where you're so stressed out that you can't really think clearly anymore. You just want enough stress just to keep you kind of in the game and engaged. So you're not just, you know, walking around in the clouds.
Yeah. And with experience comes a lot of like knowing in a workout, right? Like, you know, you have the solutions, you know, to work out. And a lot of the, you know, especially when I was younger in the field, like. You know, the world was ending, right. If we can solve this thing and do it now, when in reality, somebody who's got a lot of work to do to fix whatever probably wrong.
So you can take a day, right. And think of a solution,
especially that's your dog. Yeah. And you just nailed it. 90% of what I do is solve problems and. I've come to learn and to truly believe in that, like you just said, there is always an option. There's always an answer. There's always a solution. You may not like it, it may sting, you know, in, in construction, you, you know, there's, there's problems that come up and mistakes made that they sting really bad to the bottom line, but there's always a solution, you know, there's a way to fix it.
The world's not gonna end. But yeah, as a, as a young guy out in the field, swinging a hammer and you know, if I framed a whole wall in correctly or, or use the wrong size nails, which I have done a time or two in my early days, it seems like that's it. I'm gonna lose my job. I'm going to be, you know, homeless and poor and hat and have any friends for the rest of my life.
But you know, you get your bumps in your bruises, through experience and. You know, I'm at a place now in my career where you just got to kind of shake it off. There's nothing worth getting real excited about any more excited in a bad way. There's nothing worth getting pissed off about,
yeah, this not just sprays maybe a few months ago now, but so app to construction, you got to care.
But not that much, right? Like you gotta, you gotta care, but not that much, right? Like you got to care about, you know, doing the right thing and putting your best foot forward. But in, for a lot of us, you know, the ultimate decision is up to the building owner, right? It's out of our hands, you know, all you can do is present the best options you can.
And then let it go. Right? Relinquish the quote-unquote outcome. It's okay. Here's the choice. Now we move forward, right? So you care cherry to present options that are good options either way or just, you know, pros and cons of whatever we're presenting. Like, Hey, this, this is going to cost you a lot more.
This one's quicker and cheaper, dirtier, right? Whatever. And then you put them on the table. And it's, it's ultimately not your choice for the most part. Right. All you can do is present the options. So you've got to care, but not that much for sure. And that's actually a strategy that I started using. Cause like we've talked about before, I'm really heavily rooted in the, in the pre-construction side and estimating and sales and you know, at some point you got to realize that I'm not the one making up prices for a job. I'm not the one who is making a, a project cost. What it costs, all I'm doing is compiling information, putting the appropriate data to it, and then showing you here's, here's what it is. Here's option a, or option B. I'm just a delivery agent at that point in time. And if you can actually convince yourself that it makes the selling side a lot easier.
I think it's to remove your own on financial bias, right? So we all have a innate financial bias, right. But this is the whole thing, like making sure your own house and stable. So if, if you know, $5,000 is a lot to you personally, and you're building a $20 million building and you get a $5,000 change order, it's not that big a deal, right?
That's a rounding error. On that project, you know, now obviously they add up over time. So again, you've got to care, but like, not that much, you know, it's, it's not where it's, you know, digging tooth and nail on. And I've seen it. I've been there, you know, fighting over a thousand dollar change order. It's like we wasted more time dealing with this change order then it's worth
definitely. We, we see that all the time. And it doesn't matter if it's a $20 million project or a $200,000 project. And, you know, you just got to weigh your options and weigh the way the intrinsic costs of what you're actually looking at, because those are usually worth a lot more than the change order itself.
You know, if it's if it's somebody screw up, you know, if a, if a subcontractor screwed up and miss something, Our goal is we're going to try and help them. You know, we don't want those guys to eat it usually. I mean, there's certain circumstances that come up and you gotta do what you gotta do, but you know, in the subcontractor world, especially w where GCs.
So we have a lot of stress. We have a lot of, a lot under our plate or on our plates to manage, but we're not putting out that giant capital stack that our subcontractors are. You know, those guys are the ones that. They buy out a project in the very beginning and their front end for all the material, all the metal studs, all the dry wall, all the screws and everything.
So in a weird way, I mean, believe me, I don't like losing money. I like making money as much as the next guy, but it almost hurts them worse. You know, the subcontractors cause, cause they're already so extended. So we have a little bit of leeway to. To help with that. Usually as long as, you know, the, the pre-con guy's done his job right.
And things are set up appropriately. So, you know, we, we ride our fair share of change orders and we back charged when, when it's appropriate. But at the same time, we always try and, you know, use that team mentality and help them out if we can.
And this is this is a very, very variable point point for everybody.
So on the engineering side, especially architects there that you're dealing with subs primarily, right. That's who you're burying. Everything goes to the GC, but you're dealing with like your, you know, I deal with the electrical contractor. Right. When I'm on projects, the architects probably dealing with the, you know, wall and ceiling and door contractors to there or masonry or whatever.
And so knowing that like, okay, this change where, you know, that comes through and reviewing it, and this all goes to stress and how you manage this. I know we're getting into some weeds here, but it, if you're going to worry about that thing or tie this guy up, You know, now this sub is going to be super stressed out because now they're, you know, they probably already did a bunch of work.
So they put out a bunch more labor there. They had to pay their people. They're out, you know, Probably at least 60, if not 90 or 120 days on, you know, their stuff, right. Just in billing cycle, they bought the material, they did the work, you know, now they're getting paid on a 90 day cycle from the time they purchased material from the time they're getting paid.
I mean, that's just how it works. So they're, they're already, you know, at a a hundred days, like think of you didn't get a paycheck for a hundred days and now you're holding it up more because you don't want to re you know, review this or you want additional. Whatever and not to say that, like they need to have their paperwork in order, they for sure do.
And, you know, ask justification or whatever, but understanding like especially smaller dollar amounts like that can mean a lot to that contractor. You know, are they're getting held up on pay for, you know, another 30 days. Cause that's a pay cycle. Not, it's not, they're going to get paid in 10 days.
That's not how it works. They're gonna get paid on another 30. And this is the thing I, you know, primarily on design side, nobody understands these pay contracts. And for sure, I didn't, you know, working in a firm cause it's not something we ever dealt with. And I think there's just a big disconnect on the dollars and how these approvals need to happen.
Because again, you're not getting paid like on the 15th, right? Another 30 day. A cycle to, to make that happen. So you go past like the end of pay apps, right. It rolls. So the next one, it doesn't just get like amended and the last one. So it's always some of the things about it. Yeah.
Go ahead. It's it's way different than, than residential in that sense. Right. Residential, you know, you could always go to a homeowner and say, Hey man, look. I missed the boat on my invoice. I know it's only the 10th, but can you cut me a check? And as long as you've got a good relationship, you'll probably be okay.
You know, we're dealing with corporate entities or municipalities who have, you know, bylaws and ordinances and how these things work. They literally can't just cut a check whenever they feel like it. So, you know, we're, we're sticklers for that for paperwork and, and it's gotta be it to us by. This date and we send our invoices by this date.
And if you miss that boat, I don't feel bad for you then I can't help you. But as long as we all work together and you get your stuff in order, it usually works pretty smoothly.
Yeah. Again, it's just like one of those other, you know, stress points is finances and the money to make sure that, you know, everybody like for.
Most everybody, right? Like Matt and I aren't on this train anymore, but you're going to paycheck. Right. You're getting a consistent, steady paycheck. And you don't have to worry about like any of that stuff. But as owners, you know, it's a ball game, right? You worry about cashflow. You worry about, you know, did we invoice correctly?
Or, you know, we get receivables in on time. All this stuff. So it, it very much matters. And again, like, I know most of you are, are disconnected from this, but it'd be like, thinking about not getting a paycheck for three months, but still working. Right. You still gotta go to work. You still gotta pay your bills.
You still gotta put gas in your car, but you don't have a paycheck for three months
and you still got to be efficient and you still got to like what you're doing and you still got to keep producing and it's a tough road to host sometimes. You know, and you kind kinda hit it. The, the stress that, that we deal with on the owner side is a whole different type of stress than the stress on the field side.
You know, it all can add up to unhealthy levels in the same kind of mechanism, but there's just, there's very, very different stressors that we face or that I face certainly in the office versus what the guys out in the field are seeing. So it. You gotta be able to have that healthy balance between all of them.
Yeah. And it's not to say that one is better or worse than the other, right. Stress and stress in the body manifest pretty much all the same. So with this guys, like understand, like you can feel it right. You can feel it in your body, on what's causing stress, you know, you can see, or maybe you can't see, but people around, you can see, like, if you're.
You're drinking more than you should. Right. You're take more painkillers and you probably shouldn't be right. Or whatever that might be for you. You know, your, your coping and other ways that isn't healthy or is outside of your, let's say just norm. So trying to check that right. He see how you feel.
Are you just like anxious and you know, like angry too much? Like where you're just like thinking. You're like coming through withdrawals because you don't have your phone or something on you. Right. Like we all know those feelings and not to get too touchy feely in that. But like you just, you know, within yourself when, when those things occur, right?
No, when you're not focused, you know, when your mind is somewhere else. Right. And just to give yourself a gut check. But yeah. Going for a walk, getting outside, doing things that you enjoy, right. Watch a good movie. You watching comedy. Those are all things so like help deal with stress in whatever form you might be dealing with it in.
And you also got to remember that it's not taboo to talk about it. You know, I, I, I try and chat with my, my guys frequently and make sure, you know, I, I, I do those personal gut checks on them, you know? Cause you can learn a lot. About how somebody is doing internally in a quick conversation, especially once you know, somebody pretty well.
So, you know, we, we talk frequently and that's a lot of times what my goal is, you know, Hey, are you okay? Are you, is this working out for you? Are you pulling your hair out? You know, we I I've got a superintendent right now, who's in the home stretch of a project and we always kind of laugh because on the, the front end of the project is where the project manager in this case me is going crazy.
You know? And now you've got 60 days to buy a project out and see how bad things really got screwed up in the estimate. Well, on the flip side, now, my guys in that home stretch, he's got 60 days to get this thing done, done, handing the keys over to the owner and right. In this case, you know, it's not a, a horrible contract that we're up against, but, but mentally in his case, it's a horrible contract we're up against.
So he's, you know, he's killing himself, you know, figuratively out there every day. And I know he is, but we've got to have those talks and chats and you know, sometimes I'll force him off the job. I'll just say, that's it. You're, you're doing a great job, but go home, get out of here, go, you know, take a half a day or whatever it needs to be and go get your head straight.
You still got to have fun.
Yeah. And you'll, you'll find, you know, if you've ever gone on vacation, right. The days leading up to it are probably some of the most productive you've ever had. And then like, you know, the office didn't burn down when you were on vacation for a week. Right. It's still there when you came back.
Yes. It's still there in a pile of emails too.
And again, but like nobody, right? Like they knew you were on vacation. They either dealt with it or didn't, you know it, and then you can answer them. Right. And then both emailing. It probably takes you an hour to go through all that stuff and find everything versus, you know, taking you four hours.
Cause you would have been checking email. Then distracted then pack, email and distracted on the next thing. So it's probably more efficient to just bulk go through emails, right? Sit down at one point and blow through them all than it is to, you know, check it every 10 minutes and you'll feel better about it.
Definitely. You will and vacation and time away from the job time, you know, just relaxing with your family or friends or whomever is it's so important. Personally, I just got to a point where I was even able both financially and mentally to unplug for even a couple of days. You know, it, it's been really difficult to, to walk away from a project in, in years past, and finally kind of.
Over that hump. I think at least to Lee where, you know, I can take a week a year or whatever it needs to be and, and leave. And I have enough confidence in my team that stuff is still going to be moving forward and, you know, nothing is burnt to the ground too bad. And, you know, we, we built a team. We hired competent people and we all have skills and confidence in each other.
And you know, once you, once you get there, then yeah, you can walk away and. Just getting away from the day-to-day it erases stress. I mean, I don't know how it can't, you know, get to a beach or go for a skiing vacation or whatever you're into and, you know, give yourself some time to unwind and then, you know, you come back better for it.
Yeah. I mean, there's all kinds of things to do. Right. And it's whatever you love, you know, whether that's fishing, hiking. Skiing mountain biking. I mean, there's a ton of things to do. And just as simple as getting outside, right? Leave your phone in the house and take a walk for half an hour. An hour does wonders.
Yeah, definitely exercise too, that I found it really helps me personally anyways. And you know, I. I think we both done 75 hard. I think you might be doing it again, but 7,500 is a program for those who don't know that Andy Frisella kind of spearheaded came up with, but I won't go through all of it, but it involves a lot of exercise, a lot of self-induced exercise.
But going through that and forcing myself this summer to get in that routine it has been tremendously helpful for me and, you know, yeah. Do I like waking up at four 30 in the morning and going down to my home gym. Absolutely not. I hate it, but I feel fantastic when I'm done. And I know, you know, it's just such a stress killer and confidence booster that I think everybody should do that.
And it's hard, especially, especially for the guys that go and work manual labor all day, you know, to, to explain that to them like, well, I know you're out. Beating yourself up all day long, but you should really hit the gym afterwards or before you'll feel a lot better. And I, I do think it's the truth though.
I remember years ago it was one of my, it was my first job out of college. I, this was probably a year into the job and I had my first like solo right. Basically. So I was. I'd been kind of sorta lead, but this was my first time, like going alone, doing all the data collection. So we did art flash studies.
So we were going into industrial plants and this happened to be in Columbia, Missouri, and it was an automotive plant. So they made parts for different cars. So they were you know, supply chain for car parts in different ways and sorts. And the electric that I was working for or working with he was just jacked.
He was huge. And part of that, like, you know, so as an electrician, right? Depending on the day on a lot of stuff or like you fixed everything and you're, you're good sit around drinking coffee, but which is in a plant situation was what you want. Right? You don't, your guys are sending coffee. That means you're making money and nothing's broken.
Yeah. A little different than in construction, but With that, like, I mean, do is just huge. But what he was saying is like, I just, I feel so much better. And this was before like, I mean, years, years before, so it's like 10 years ago. So this was before like 75 heart came out or any of these programs, it was, you know, like going to the gym was kind of, sort of something people maybe did.
And I was just like, I feel so much better, like going and lifting and. You know, eating, right? Like it just feel better. I was like, Oh, that's cool, man. Like, awesome, good for you. Right. And this was like, when I didn't know any better. And now like, you know, I run stupid distances and all this other stuff that, you know, and again, it doesn't have to be like going and lifting like 400 pound, you know, deadlifts or bench presses or squats.
Like again, a simple 30 minute walk on flat ground does wonders.
Definitely. Absolutely. I grew up the same way. All the, the, you know, the meatheads, I, it never made me, like, why would you go and spend all this time in the gym? And, you know, I'm no big buff superstar by any means, but I get it now. And, and I, I make a point to take that time for myself.
And that that's really the key, I think, too, is, is taking the time for yourself. Yeah. Whether it's just walking, whether it's doing that crazy nonsense that you do and running for hundreds of miles or, or just going to the gym, you just take some time for yourself, you know, every day and every little bit you do helps.
Yeah. And I mean, again, like I know guys that go fishing, right? Like just sit there and cast for an hour. Right? Like it doesn't have to be. Like, we're not talking to anything crazy here, right? It's something that just take you away from everything that's going on.
Well, Matt, any, I guess any other points that you want to add here on some ways to cope with, with stress and then I'll give us a wrap up.
You know, I think it's just important to talk about. I think it's just something to keep on top of mind. You can't ignore it because it won't go away. It's not specific to our industry by any means, but, but we surely have a lot of it in construction and, and in all facets of construction from design to all the way through to building and, you know, just acknowledging it is a big step in the right direction.
And as long as we keep talking about it and you know, people keep. Taking care of themselves. I think we'll all be better for it.
Yeah. I mean, guys, this is a, it's a big topic. I mean, it's close to home for me. Like I got shingles projects which is completely stress-induced. So to me like this, this is home, I've known, I'm known of guys not.
So some of the guys that I've worked with had heart attacks So one of my bosses did one of the guys under me did one of the other guys on that team before I came to the department, like how to a stroke? Like I've seen it been around, it, experienced it, right? Like I didn't have a heart attack or stroke, but shingles is still pretty bad, pretty painful.
And it lasts for like 10 days. So it's. One of these things that it's super real people, you know, manifested in different ways, whether it's they're drinking too much, they're, you know, their body is fighting for attention and, you know, with heart attacks, which is, you know, an extreme example you know, strokes, not eating right, right.
Into much, take out whatever. So learning how to relinquish this and. You know, not worry about sending that next email, don't worry about like, you need to do it. I'm not saying don't, but I'm saying like, they can wait, you can put it to the side. Nothing's gonna, you know, catch on fire. Right. It's going to be okay.
And the more that you can, and I have that feeling and those, those are the people that lasts a long time in this industry. Even keeled, they don't, you know, like they'll get to it, get done. They don't worry about it. And those are the people that, that lasts a long time in this industry. So, you know, if you want to last, if you want to stay in construction, those are the types of things that you're going to have to do to survive and not only survive, but to thrive within the industry.
You know, you don't get phased by much. It's okay. You'll survive. You'll get through it when it happens. And, you know, it's all gonna work out in the end.
Absolutely. You still got to have fun in life.
Yeah. Yeah. All right, guys. So again, with stress, talk about it, you know, to Matt's point talk about it, understand that it exists.
It's a real thing, and you need to find ways to manage it the best you can, especially in construction. And don't be afraid to talk about it, you know, whether that's. People on your team, your spouse, friends out at the industry and maybe have a, you know, little more lax job, whatever it is, right. Find ways to deal with it.
Go fishing, take walk. It's all gonna be. Okay. The other thing that I wanted to bring up guys is so next week the 26th here, January, we're going to do a LinkedIn live. Construction tech round table. So we're going to have I'm hosting a, the round table. We're gonna have people from all different walks of instruction and talk construction tech.
So some of the industry leaders we're going to have somebody from Nika, somebody from the wall and ceiling association. We're going to have a couple of subcontractors architect another GC and. Talk, everything, construction tech. So you want to tune in, it's going to be noon Eastern 9:00 AM Pacific.
It'll be live on LinkedIn. Other platforms are TBD at this point, but we'll for sure be live on LinkedIn. And we'll get that out to you. So again, if you're not following me or Matt on LinkedIn are all of our links are in the bio here. So you can tune into that next week, noon Eastern nine Pacific on LinkedIn, Matt, anything else you want to add to close us out for your first?
Co-hosting second appearance on the podcast.
First show, man, this is, this was fun. And I, I want to promise everybody that not every episode is going to be this heavy. We're going to, we're going to have a lot of fun too, and getting to all things construction and I'm happy to be here. I'm glad you brought me on board.
And I mean, I appreciate the heck out of it.
Yeah, for sure, man. And then like moving forward guys too, we'll do some of our own round tables, the podcast it's going to be you know, a little more let's say talk, show type moving forward. You know, Matt and I might have some solo episodes move forward to some of the similar things that you've seen, but definitely going to be more of a round table conversations from tech to subs, to specific things on job sites to design.
I mean, we'll cover the gamut and you're going to get hopefully a fair and balanced overview here with with somebody on the design side, even on the, the GC side.
Awesome looking forward to it.
So guys, that's going to be this episode of the construction corner podcast. We got so many great things here ahead of us moving forward.
So we'll, we'll see you and talk to you guys next time.