- Ask the Answer Man: I give up.
That’s it for me, I’ve had it. I’m 43 and in a job I hate– I owe that to bad decison making in college leading to a degree in a field I get no reward from. I’m too old to start again in something else at the bottom. Recently I found out my husband of 10 years has been stepping out to various degrees to “find comfort” apparently I can’t provide– I guess when you hate your life it’s hard to come home and be someone else’s party mate. I’ve reconciled that I’m just going to work another thirty years in a job I can’t stand and I deserve everything that comes at me.
I can tell you with certainty and real life experience that your situation is so far away from hopeless and the only reason you can’t see it is you’re standing in the middle of the storm. You are not too old to start again in something completely different than what you are doing now. 43 is far from “too old” for anything and I have to imagine discovering the infidelity at this time certainly isn’t helping.
First and foremost you need to decide what you’re doing with your husband. It’s OK to withdraw emotionally from him for a bit while you work out the direction you want to go. Counseling can be a good choice if that works for you. But work out a plan for the two of you and see if you can forgive him and if he can stop blaming you for his bad choices.
As for work, I restarted my career many times over– and each time I was able to claw myself up from the bottom rung to a high level position and I’m absolutely nothing special. In this current work environment just showing up and doing your job goes a long way towards advancement.
Life is too short to be with someone you can’t trust– I hope you can regain the feelings that first brought you two together, but if you can’t you have plenty of life left (I would give this same advice to someone in their 80s) so move on. As for work- find something you’re passionate in, get into an entry level position and if advancement there requires some kind of additional degree or training focus on that in your after hours. You didn’t mention children but if you have them your spouse may have to help pick up some of the burden involved so you can find the happiness you deserve.
And I mean that. You deserve happiness, we all do. But we have to be the ones to make it happen.
- Fast Food’s Woes
Nobody eats fast food, right? If you went solely on how people talk WENDY’S ™ McDONALD’S ™ and BURGER KING ™ would have all been shuttered and boarded up with the producers of THE WALKING DEAD renting out the buildings for apocalyptic backgrounds.
I eat the stuff, nowhere near as much as some of my friends do, in fact I’ve got one friend who is my age who eats at these places 3-4x a week! I can’t fathom how that must affect your system.
I can tell you truthfully that I’ve yet to see any one of these chains run a halfway decent operation– to the point that it’s honestly human drama right before your eyes as they try to get orders out- throw out the bums, clean up what looks like five two year old birthday party celebrations and still manage to get pickles on the burger in a timely fashion.
CHIC FIL A ™ where I don’t eat much has everything down to a science; from well trained employees who actually seem to like working there to clipboard carrying folks in the multi car drive thru’s keeping everything working like a clock. Turnover all government operations to the people who run CHIC FIL A ™ and you’ll never see a line at the DMV again.
But while CHIC FIL A ™ thrives, the steadfast giants in the industry falter. Why?
Staffing. I’ve never had to help clean up a CHIC FIL A ™ dining room while I waited for my order. Neither have I ever seen a manager slam his fist on the counter shouting “Jesus Christ!”, or staff standing around talking while orders pile up, or a mob of people standing around the pickup area desperately waiting for their order. I can’t say that about the big three.
Quality. I used to say that a Whopper ™ made my way– no mayo, no lettuce, no tomatoes but mustard, ketchup, onions and extra pickles was as good a burger as you could find anywhere. Not so anymore. I ordered one recently– and you know one of the reasons I like to custom order is then I know the burger is made fresh and not sitting there under the warming light– and it was ice cold, below room temperature– I’m not sure how you manage that. After waiting 15 minutes for it, I took it back up to the counter and told the manager, he took the burger and said “Again?” and threw it in the trash promising to make me a hot one. I didn’t have the 15 additional minutes to spare so I left.
I used to stop and get the Wendy’s ™ chili because it was worth a stop, I don’t know what they did to it but it’s nowhere near what it used to be.
The McDonald’s ™ near me is a performance show. Unlike most places, these kids are killing themselves trying to get the orders out, but it must be the busiest location in the Northeast because the orders just keep coming. I actually defend them to angry customers waiting with me, but clearly this franchise location is holding the payroll strings way too tight because they need at least five more people.
Now compare this to the Dunkin’ ™ across the street– I don’t even like Dunkin’ ™ all that much but if I want a hot breakfast sandwich fast this is the place to go. In the time it takes to order at the register and walk to the pickup area your order is being handed to you– and it’s hot as lava and done however you asked for it.
Staffing and quality are what is killing the Big Three fast food joints. Never mind re-branding, pricing is an issue for sure- used to be you could feed three people on $20 now you’re luck if you have lunch for that- but the bad execution and the poor quality of the food is what is killing your business.
That’s a lesson for a lot of retailers– train your staff, treat them well. Morale plummets when people feel like they’re overtasked or they don’t understand their duties. Train people correctly and everything else will fall into place.
- Frank Miller’s RONIN
Nothing was more instrumental in getting me back into comic books than Frank Miller’s RONIN from 1983– still in High School, I had moved into advanced art classes where I focused on Oil Painting, Silk Screening and Architecture. I fell in love with Perspective and it’s math based roots and had dismissed comics as “kiddie stuff”.
RONIN changed all that with innovative art and amazing color by Frank Miller and his longtime partner Lynn Varley.
Some 40 years later Miller did a sequel with artists Philip Tan, Daniel Henriques and others this time in a black and white Manga style which I took with me on the plane to Florida, determined after buying this almost two years ago to sit down and give it a read.
I’ll be honest with you, RONIN was such a deep concept it took me several read throughs and more than enough cliff notes to help me understand some of the bigger ideas in it.
With this sequel, those ideas are played out further and while I’d say the art is spectacular it’s far less innovative than Miller’s work from 1983- I also missed the beautiful colors of the original. But it stands on it’s own as a worthy sequel to the grand epic of the original.
Recommended.
- Remember the Days of 4-6 Week Shipping?
It was a long time ago, but my kid best friend and I ordered a Monkee’s Album via the mail and then sat and waited the 4-6 weeks for it to arrive. I remember it vividly to this day because it took the full 6 weeks and maybe more– I think it missed the whole summer.
There was a mail order company in the back of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND called Captain Company–and what I didn’t know at the time and honestly I’m not sure it mattered, was that Captain Company and Famous Monsters were one and the same. They would have virtual catalogs in the back of the mag that was almost and sometimes more entertaining than the magazine itself. They too would take your money and then you’d wait forever for that Life Size Frankenstein to arrive. 4-6 weeks? How would he breath stuffed in a box?
Today that has changed. In talking to Number Two son who runs ROBO PICTO COMICS with his brother and a few employees I was noting the impatience sites like Amazon have created. We no longer expect to wait 4-6 days never mind 4-6 weeks.
Now Amazon tells you’ll get your item either tomorrow or the day after. In some cases you’ll get it today. When I was in Japan I was amazed that they offered 45 minute delivery.
And that’s where we’re going– if you want to be in the mail order business the customer’s reaction to your product is going to be dramatically influenced by the delivery time. A customer is far less likely to complain or return an item if it arrives quickly and in one piece.
Part of the problem for small businesses is that you are often at the mercy of the delivery companies and there’s really not much you can do once you hand off that package, but as a business owner you now have to pay attention to those delivery times and make adjustments if the company you’ve chosen to fulfill those deliveries is falling down at the job.
Amazon has also affected what people want to pay for shipping, and I’m as guilty as the next fella, I want to pay $0 and I want my package fast. Not always an easy accomplishment.
So as a business owner do you raise your price by 5% and then swing around and offer “Free” Shipping? Do you offer more than one shipping service? Allowing the consumer to choose between “slow and free” or “Fast and pay” shipping?
It’s a difficult balance to navigate and one each business has to make for itself.The best advice I can give to you is listen to your customers keeping in mind that golden rule that only 1 out of 12 customers will speak up and complain. So give weight to any criticism and don’t be too quick to dimiss someone who complains as a difficult or unreasonable person.
- PLAYFOREVER CARS
Aren’t these great? I discovered these tough little cars at a classic toy shop down in Connecticut or up on the North Shore– they’re made of metal, they’re about 8″ long and they are solid. At a starting price of $50/ea they aren’t cheap but they sure look fun and indestructible. I’ve got a nephew I plan on sending a few of these to once he crosses the age suggestion of 3, but meanwhile I have two myself and while I don’t play with them I admire the artistry very much. US Shipping is free, so that’s pretty good.
Check them out HERE.
Welcome to the new Blog– this whole thing is a work in progress, but you’ll get the latest updates here (just click the links above). It was a longtime coming but a short-time putting it together.
More soon and regularly like the old blog.
Thanks for stopping by.
Andy
It's Andy Fish! 