[The Jester of Wibbly]

So what's your biggest cause of stress in this game?

I know the story is different between those who employ and who don't.

For me I have had some high level management blue-chip jobs that came with a shed load of stress.  I am glad to be away from it as it pushed my blood pressure to the max.

So since being a wc I have lost all those stress levels and sleepless nights.  (well at least after spending many years building a comfortable round anyway) Our industry does not come close to others roles with regard to stress levels in my eyes.

So, for me my biggest stresses these days revolve around bad weather,  late payers (rare) and the worry of equipment failure.  Pathetic really in comparison.

I dont think I will ever bother with employing again.  I just don't want the extra hastle being content on my own.

[SB Cleaning]

I was only stressed when employing...it's a right headache and just not worth it, better off on my own 

[Perfect Windows]

So, for me my biggest stresses these days revolve around bad weather,  late payers (rare) and the worry of equipment failure. 

The first one's daft as a source of worry. Dress warm and dry then just work.

Late payers. Why do they worry you?  Just have a system for chasing them, follow it and don't take debt personally.

Equipment. Double up on everything. Two pumps, two reels, an old pole for standby and a backup source of pure already arranged. Then you have nothing to worry about.

Vin

[dazmond]

compared to landscape gardening or nursery work(plants,trees,etc)working 55-60 hour weeks for crap money window cleaning is a breeze....

a lot of stress can be avoided by being organised with EVERYTHING to do with your business from keeping your books up to date,having plenty of spares,emergency fund,keeping on top of debtlists/worklists etc.....cleaner planner helps greatly with all of this...

an example is i bought some resin back in early december 2018 and ive not needed to use it until today so no last min panic,i have plenty of spares,poles,brushes,connectors,hose reel and hose(including pole hose),business cards,leaflets,even A4 paper,ink and envelopes!

this afternoon ive already scheduled all my work for the next 4 weeks on CP and reshuffled a few jobs here and there to fit into my planned schedule.....and im already thinking about booking my van in for its annual service in early feb on a light week workwise......

[zesty]

It’s funny you should create this post...

I’ve been decorating the house this week, and while preparing the walls, cleaning up and then painting etc, I’ve been thinking:

 ‘there is no way I could be a painter and decorator, such faff, such mess, and believe it or not, it’s actuallly harder work’

Makes me realise what a great job we have.

1. It’s clean (for the most part)

2. Fairly easy.

3. No clear up/packing away

4. Hardly anything to set up for the day

5. Not in the same place for a week or so like other trades.

6. The money!

 

[Stoots]

Late/non payers, cancellations and Messer's.

Not really stress but annoying.

Stressfull starting out when trying to make ends meet but once established not really.

Running out of resin, equipment breaking, van breaking, weather I suppose could be stressfull

But it's only stressfull if you let it, most issues are resolved in a few days at most so why stress.

Breaking a leg or health concern would be stressfull.

I would say the biggest problem with this job is depression, probably due to the solitude.

[Spotfree]

I am slightly concerned I may go soft, from such an easy life!

[dazmond]

the reason why i work short hours window cleaning is theres the end of day jobs to do as well,this afternoon i changed my resin,purified my water and put batteries on charge,washed van,topped up screenwash,uploaded/downloaded worksheets for next week,printed invoices for monday,washed scrims/microfibres(a weeks worth).....im all set for monday now.....

[dazmond]

I am slightly concerned I may go soft, from such an easy life!

weight training 3 times a week,playing drums and being in a relationship with my missus makes sure my life isnt TOO easy!

[dazmond]

a bit of stress is good for you........it keeps you on your toes.......

[John Mart]

Customers.

I’m getting better but I hate rudeness and liars and do take it personally. I’m ok with late payers except the ones that owe on a first clean.

The job is as stressful as any other non emergency type job.

[Missing Link]

I’m getting better but I hate rudeness and liars and do take it personally.

Drop them; straight away.

I can't remember any customer being rude to me, or lying.  Not in the recent past anyway; I fell out with one customer a few years back because he was an idiot.  But even then he was civil; just stupid.

A suggestion might be that if customers are regularly rude or lie to you, take a look at yourself and ask why this is.

[nathankaye]

The main stress is being seriously ill and off work for a period of time and thats all really.
Ive stopped playing football now as ive a couple of sporting injuries and they can easily flare up after a good game of footie and ive needed several days off. But thats fine, its if it becomes a more serious injury or if serious ill health comes along.

[Spruce]

For me we have very little bad debt - a few late payers but we only get a couple of no payers or skippers a year. So no stress there.

The stress for me is having too many customers for me to handle so always being behind. Its health and age related.

The down side of this job for me is the lack of mental stimulus. I'm going brain dead; is it an age related thing or a lack of mental stimulus?

[Spotfree]

For me we have very little bad debt - a few late payers but we only get a couple of no payers or skippers a year. So no stress there.

The stress for me is having too many customers for me to handle so always being behind. Its health and age related.

The down side of this job for me is the lack of mental stimulus. I'm going brain dead; is it an age related thing or a lack of mental stimulus?

You need to spruce things up a little.

[Spotfree]

I am slightly concerned I may go soft, from such an easy life!

weight training 3 times a week,playing drums and being in a relationship with my missus makes sure my life isnt TOO easy!

My 3 hobbies ae weightlifting, kickboxing and window cleaning. I love my life. My missus is no hard work at all, quite the opposite.

[John Mart]

I’m getting better but I hate rudeness and liars and do take it personally.

Drop them; straight away.

I can't remember any customer being rude to me, or lying.  Not in the recent past anyway; I fell out with one customer a few years back because he was an idiot.  But even then he was civil; just stupid.

A suggestion might be that if customers are regularly rude or lie to you, take a look at yourself and ask why this is.

Because I’m a guy in the office. It’s lying more than rudeness. The rudeness tends to be in texts more.

[Spotfree]

I’m getting better but I hate rudeness and liars and do take it personally.

Drop them; straight away.

I can't remember any customer being rude to me, or lying.  Not in the recent past anyway; I fell out with one customer a few years back because he was an idiot.  But even then he was civil; just stupid.

A suggestion might be that if customers are regularly rude or lie to you, take a look at yourself and ask why this is.

Because I’m a guy in the office. It’s lying more than rudeness. The rudeness tends to be in texts more.

I can sometimes take things a little personaly, I get over it mcuh quicker nowadays as I've realised it wont change anything. It's just the window cleaning "game".

[LT carpet cleaning]

I am slightly concerned I may go soft, from such an easy life!

weight training 3 times a week,playing drums and being in a relationship with my missus makes sure my life isnt TOO easy!

My 3 hobbies ae weightlifting, kickboxing and window cleaning. I love my life. My missus is no hard work at all, quite the opposite.

Window cleaning is a hobby! 

[Spotfree]

I am slightly concerned I may go soft, from such an easy life!

weight training 3 times a week,playing drums and being in a relationship with my missus makes sure my life isnt TOO easy!

My 3 hobbies ae weightlifting, kickboxing and window cleaning. I love my life. My missus is no hard work at all, quite the opposite.

Window cleaning is a hobby! 

Better that than a chore

[nathankaye]

Stresses in life;
Self harming 17 yr old daughter / suicidal.
An overly stressed out x wife.

Wife who is poorly most days, just varying degrees of health.
Currently 2 poorly little kids for a wk now (2yr n 4 yr old).
Mother in law with fibromyalgia but helps out where she can and my mother has alzheimers, whilst she looks after my sister who has downsyndrome.

Work 😂😂😂 work is my holiday.
Work is my escape

[The Jester of Wibbly]

Nah. Stress is when you can't get straight through to gardeners hehe 

[cleaniac]

Stresses in life;
Self harming 17 yr old daughter / suicidal.
An overly stressed out x wife.

Wife who is poorly most days, just varying degrees of health.
Currently 2 poorly little kids for a wk now (2yr n 4 yr old).
Mother in law with fibromyalgia but helps out where she can and my mother has alzheimers, whilst she looks after my sister who has downsyndrome.

Work 😂😂😂 work is my holiday.
Work is my escape

Sorry to hear that Nathan. But can i ask, why did you put on your window cleaning flyers that you have family with ill health etc? Id never do that it stays away from work..just asking

[nathankaye]

Stresses in life;
Self harming 17 yr old daughter / suicidal.
An overly stressed out x wife.

Wife who is poorly most days, just varying degrees of health.
Currently 2 poorly little kids for a wk now (2yr n 4 yr old).
Mother in law with fibromyalgia but helps out where she can and my mother has alzheimers, whilst she looks after my sister who has downsyndrome.

Work 😂😂😂 work is my holiday.
Work is my escape

Sorry to hear that Nathan. But can i ask, why did you put on your window cleaning flyers that you have family with ill health etc? Id never do that it stays away from work..just asking

No worries, those flyers are for existing customers and 90% of them have been with me for a good number of years. Most I know by name as i would often have quick chats with them when they were in whilst i cleaned their windows or when i was collecting. Therefore I know about them and some of their situations and they know about my wife etc.  Therefore i saw no harm in doing so and it beats giving a fob off answer. When customers understand your reasonings they are nore inclined to be understanding etc. Well at least thats my experience.

All my recent newish customers pay by standing order or paypal and my new customers from last or b4 all have no choice but to sign onto direct debits, with no explanations as thats my payment terms.

[Spruce]

Stresses in life;
Self harming 17 yr old daughter / suicidal.
An overly stressed out x wife.

Wife who is poorly most days, just varying degrees of health.
Currently 2 poorly little kids for a wk now (2yr n 4 yr old).
Mother in law with fibromyalgia but helps out where she can and my mother has alzheimers, whilst she looks after my sister who has downsyndrome.

Work 😂😂😂 work is my holiday.
Work is my escape

Sorry to hear this Nathan. It's people like you with real problems that help put a true perspective of how minor our issues are in comparison.
 

[Splash & dash]

Stresses in life;
Self harming 17 yr old daughter / suicidal.
An overly stressed out x wife.

Wife who is poorly most days, just varying degrees of health.
Currently 2 poorly little kids for a wk now (2yr n 4 yr old).
Mother in law with fibromyalgia but helps out where she can and my mother has alzheimers, whilst she looks after my sister who has downsyndrome.

Work 😂😂😂 work is my holiday.
Work is my escape

I hope you situation improves I understand exactly what you are dealing with I also have a suicidal daughter having counceling and on medication you don’t know from one muinit to the next how they are goin to be . My mother died 3 years ago after many years suffering from altsheimers and vascular dementia , very difficult situations to deal with , just take each day as it comes and try your best to help them , but also take the needed time out for yourself you need to stay strong fir them and that’s not easy , genuinely I hope things improve for you , well done for raising this on a public forum takes courage to do that

[DeLuce]

The down side of this job for me is the lack of mental stimulus. I'm going brain dead; is it an age related thing or a lack of mental stimulus?

 I must say, after some time I tend to get bored out of my tree on this job. Fortunately I live on a farm and come do some alternative work if I want. I’m very lucky really. Last year I went on a tree
felling course coz I do some chainsaw work. Got all my felling certifications. And I felt very fresh going back to work on the windows.
Generally speaking, window cleaning as a job is relatively stress free because you , as it’s your business ,can control different factors like bad customers and payers.
Like Vin said earlier, you can build up your equipment for back up.
Yes , you can fret about bad payers or you can deal with it, wether it be chasing it up or after a certain amount of tries , just writing it off. After all, it’s our time being wasted after each attempt to recover the money . What will an hour of your time cost you??
 The people commenting about their families ill health are the ones I feel for. I’ve been there.
To go to work and come back to a sick household where work begins again when you step through the door is very stressful. The stress from those situations can make you extremely irritable and short tempered.
I hope their situations improve over time. Or, that they find good solid customers.

[G Griffin]

I feel more sorry for Nathan's family.
They've got to live with him  .

[DeLuce]

  

[nathankaye]

I feel more sorry for Nathan's family.
They've got to live with him  .

😂😂😂

[G Griffin]

I feel more sorry for Nathan's family.
They've got to live with him  .

😂😂😂

I'm glad you took it in the right spirit, Nathan; that's a good quality.
And I know exactly what you mean. Going to work is respite, at times.
Best wishes with it all  .

[Dry Clean]

I feel more sorry for Nathan's family.
They've got to live with him  .

😂😂😂

I'm glad you took it in the right spirit, Nathan; that's a good quality.
And I know exactly what you mean. Going to work is respite, at times.
Best wishes with it all  .

Exactly, no matter how hard you push him you're never going to get a hissy fit/melt down, would say its that quality that helps
him cope with his troubles.

[Martin Lane]

Being a one man band window cleaner should not give you that much stress, you can have a very good working life and earn a very good wage,
l have 20 sub contractors  working for me in between Surrey, Bristol and Liverpool have to admit sometimes the stress of keeping on top of who is doing what  and when then the hard bit getting paid does cause a fair bit of stress sometimes

[a900]

The fear of being seen by people I know that knew me as a corporate banker but now cleaning windows😂😂

I’m having to make up stresses of the job. Guess the only real stress is unknown jobs. Jobs that I’ve not got so much experience to price or unsure if I can do it.

[nathankaye]

Cheers guys, i wasnt expecting those comments.
In this job, which doesnt come as a suprise to all on here, but we meet people from all walks of life and they all have different tails to tell and more often than not, you will meet people with more difficult trials in their life that they are facing. It helps me to keep things in perspective. True, each persons mountain may be a mountain to themselves, but its their mountain to navigate and climb.  But knowing others are striving through theirs helps me/us to get through ours.

Haha, it also helps if you have a sense of humour and dont take too many things seriously or perhaps the wrong things/comments too seriously in the grand scheme of things.

[The Jester of Wibbly]

There is a difference between work stress and personal stress.  The later being the worst.

Grief, health, finance and divorce are the biggest causes of stress with a high chance of triggering depression.

Everyone tries to cope with these in different ways.  However in the wc game to some and most can be demoralising, lonely, unstimulating and harder to get motivated.   This environment is hard for anyone struggling with depression and personal stress. 

I remember when I lost my dad there was no one to really talk to while out at work watching everyone go about their normal business trying to keep a smile on my face.  However I did not mind that so much as it gave me time to think and come to terms with things in my own space.

Work stress does exist out there.  I don't miss those aggressive sales targets, tight budgets and strict compliance audits.   Commuting on the train at the crack of dawn listening to all the other stressed commuters on thier phones getting their arse kicked.  Not missed.

[nathankaye]

Very true, but the advantage in our field of work or the vast majority on here, is that we are our own boss and as such we can play an active role in limited or increasing our level of stress associated with our work. Or at least impliment changes to help.
However, stress is stress and hope all going through it will see light at the end of the tunnel soon or continue with the strength to get through it

[LT carpet cleaning]

I feel more sorry for Nathan's family.
They've got to live with him  .

😂😂😂

I'm glad you took it in the right spirit, Nathan; that's a good quality.
And I know exactly what you mean. Going to work is respite, at times.
Best wishes with it all  .

Exactly, no matter how hard you push him you're never going to get a hissy fit/melt down, would say its that quality that helps
him cope with his troubles.

Yep, you wont see Nathan threatening to head up to beat someone up or stalk someone on social media. 

 

[G Griffin]

I feel more sorry for Nathan's family.
They've got to live with him  .

😂😂😂

I'm glad you took it in the right spirit, Nathan; that's a good quality.
And I know exactly what you mean. Going to work is respite, at times.
Best wishes with it all  .

Exactly, no matter how hard you push him you're never going to get a hissy fit/melt down, would say its that quality that helps
him cope with his troubles.

Yep, you wont see Nathan threatening to head up to beat someone up or stalk someone on social media. 

 

Behave yourself, it wasn't me.
The two culprits are no longer around, so let's leave your history where it belongs.
I shouldn't have brought it up; they were cheap shots and I apologise.
But just pixels, P  .

[LT carpet cleaning]

I feel more sorry for Nathan's family.
They've got to live with him  .

😂😂😂

I'm glad you took it in the right spirit, Nathan; that's a good quality.
And I know exactly what you mean. Going to work is respite, at times.
Best wishes with it all  .

Exactly, no matter how hard you push him you're never going to get a hissy fit/melt down, would say its that quality that helps
him cope with his troubles.

Yep, you wont see Nathan threatening to head up to beat someone up or stalk someone on social media. 

 

Behave yourself, it wasn't me.
The two culprits are no longer around, so let's leave your history where it belongs.
I shouldn't have brought it up; they were cheap shots and I apologise.
But just pixels, P  .

No one said it was you. Big ego?? Hehe. Just jesting. It’s a dull day 

[Frankybadboy]

the stress for me is getting out of bed in the morning end of

[markymark]

the stress for me is getting out of bed in the morning end of

Wot he said ⬆️
Look after your kit, keep on top of your books and know your limitations for work vs time. Business-wise my only stress is being able to fit my work into the time I allow for it.
I'd never go back to being an employee - targets to be met, deadlines, things that have to be done in order for someone else to get the rewards and credit; and all for someone else's business to reap the rewards of our work. Nah. Not for me.