lissymanners

This year has been rollercoaster. I'm aware we are only half way through and I can't get off, so instead, I need to vent. Firstly, Work. My job has changed so much over the past year. I now manage a small business with 17 staff. I am in charge of everything; HR, Fleet, Marketing, Social Media, Recruiting, Accounts, Invoicing, Customer Relations, Training, Health&Safety etc etc. You name it, and its my responsibility. I don't have training in any of this and have had to teach myself so much business management. This is all stuff I do not have time do to on top of my day to day job. Daily myself and my colleague manage 12 electricians - everything from meeting clients, pricing jobs, ording materials, writing risk assessments etc etc My business is an Electricial Contractors, and is a family business with my stepdad. Unfortunately earlier this year he had a mini stroke and has since 90% retired. Of course this has pushed a lot more work onto my shoulders and I thought I was coping just fine. I was.

July: The school 6 weeks holidays are the busiest time of year for us. We have to increase our workforce of electricians by at least a third (with no additional management). This is also the time of year we can make money so it is very important we work our asses off while the jobs are available. Of course it isn't just the 6 weeks that are extra busy, at least a month either side is when it all starts going mental. July 22: I get inspected. This is a big deal. It is like ofsed for a school. I personally get inspected on behalf of my business. This is split in two sections, the theory and the practical. The theory they are checking that all of my paperwork is as it should be - this is always the case and not much additional work is required. The practical - this is my nightmare. I have to go to site and carry out fully electrical testing. I am qualifed to do this but this is not what I do now that I work in the office full time. I am very rusty and I need to spend quite a bit of time getting myself ready for this. Secondly, Home. This year I got engaged and I got married. In all of the excitment and planning we didn't get out as much as usual, but we hoped following the wedding we would get back to our usual selves. (This blog is much more about my lesiure time so you will know the type of thing we usually get up to). Following the wedding, we have been on a few advenutres however far too few. We had one big day out where I stupidly wore new trainers and walked 10 miles - and suffered. I recently had tonsilitis and conjunctivitis. It was awful, I was seriously run down. I then had to take care of myself because I was booked in to have laser eye surgery, which I had done last friday. It was one of the worst days ever. I won't go into details and I am finally on the mend but I'm not sure if I would recommend it. I still have to take it easy for a few weeks to avoid any chance of infection and to let my eyes heal. So basically I haven't done anything. I feel fat, lazy, unfit and unhealthy. It's definately getting me down. I need to start getting out, but sometimes I am at the office until 8pm. I need my work/life balance back - but I'm not sure if that can happen over the next 2 months.