march2023 - 6

HI TCHED UP FROM THE EDITOR
Mastering the toughest
management skill: Self-maintenance
To get the best uptime, give yourself better downtime.
Of all the Billy Joel lyrical advice I should
have heeded, who would have thought it
would be " workin' too hard can give you a
heart attack (ack-ack-ack). " But that's exactly
what happened to me as I was approving the
last issue before sending it off to the printer.
As much as I would love to shift the blame,
By John Hitch
Editor-in-chief
@Hitched2Trucks
this one was on me. You see, I wanted to start
the year off with a killer issue, (over)worked
through a few consecutive weekends, and one
quiet Friday morning-pow, right in the ticker-my
very own myocardial infarction. The
funny thing is I thought it was indigestion
for an entire day, and only after 20 hours of
heaving chest pain and radiating numbness
did I seek a non-web-based medical opinion.
They found a total blockage in one small
artery. This was likely due to genetics, along
with foregoing exercise and sleep for more
working nights and weekends. And Red Bull.
Too much Red Bull.
Luckily, only the good die young. So, I
survived, with just one stent as a parting gift
from a two-day hospital stay. A weekend in the
cardiac ICU is plenty of time to contemplate
the usual post-heart attack concerns: my own
mortality, my family's future, and if I will ever
know the heavenly taste of a cappicola, ham,
and salami sandwich again.
My most demented thoughts were about
work, though. I would be forced to take time
off, so who will handle the day-to-day stuff like
newsletters? What about the March issue? And
we have a supplement-how will that get done?
In my two weeks off, I learned to accept that
a drive for excellence can very well take you
over the edge, and it's better to coast in cruise
control every so often than go full throttle and
overheat-or worse-cause an accident.
I imagine it's the same for a lot of other
managers out there, especially those running
fleets and maintenance departments. The
country needs you folks a heck of a lot more
than they do another snarky magazine editor,
so hopefully, you will consider heeding some
of the following management advice I came up
with over the past month.
Aim for higher health metrics
I used to scoff when my last corporate workplace
would hold an annual 5K run. Who had
time to don dorky company T-shirts and jog
around downtown when stories needed to be
written and web traffic needed to be driven?
Improving quality and data were everything
to me, as I had to show my bosses how valuable
I could be. I carried that mindset over to the
management level, though the only person I
was trying to prove something to was myself...
and I would never be satisfied.
So for all the KPIs you are trying to improve,
focus more on how far you can walk or run
per day, or lowering your LDL cholesterol
(the bad kind) year-over-year. Remember, as
famed football guru Bill Parcells said:
" Availability is the best ability. " So
you can kill it in the data department
one year, but your shop will
still be in far worse shape if you
work yourself to death the next.
And the better you feel, the
better your decision-making
will be.
1363130988 | azatvaleev | Getty Images
Plan for your
own absence
Whether you're a shop owner or floor
supervisor, you should always have
a strategy in place for planned or
unplanned leave. No one plans for
a heart attack (except maybe the
CIA), but if you have one, or some
other health problem or accident
pops up, your recovery will
6 Fleet Maintenance | March 2023
go more smoothly if you know your employees
know how to get into the shop and can access
various schedules and dashboards.
The big questions to ask yourself are, as
things stand now: " How long can the business
survive without me? " and " How much
work will I have to do when I get back? " For
me, it was about two weeks off, supplemented
by a few emails and phone calls. Luckily, I work
with some great colleagues who kept up the
positive momentum.
Having all your files organized in a sensible
manner and uploading critical folders to
SharePoint or other cloud services can help
give your team the tools they need to succeed.
In a large business, the IT department could
likely access your crucial emails and files, but
regarding smaller independent shops, you
may want to consider sharing spare key and
password locations with a significant other or
trusted employee.
A matter of trust (& empathy)
This shouldn't need much explanation. If you
give your employees time off to take care of
their lives, handle emergencies, and always
treat them fairly, it comes back to you. If you
overload your techs with unfulfilling tasks and
get on their case for missing work if their kid is
sick, then you're setting up the exact expectations
they will have for you if you need to leave
work for a medical follow-up or rehab work.
You're also unlikely to retain capable people
to handle things while you're gone, leading to
more stress when you return.
Maintain a healthy
work/life balance
This is a constant struggle for remote workers
such as myself, as there is always work
that could be done and my commute is a
staircase. I've set boundaries, such as taking
a full non-working lunch hour and walking
for 20-30 minutes instead of reading emails.
Weekends are now reserved for quality time
with my incredibly supportive wife and kids,
not catching up on lagging projects.
And as I try this new sobriety from workaholism,
Mr. Joel's song " Vienna " makes a lot
more sense, too:
" Where's the fire, what's the
hurry about? You better cool it off before you
burn it out. "
I'm certainly trying, and I hope you do, too.
http://www.twitter.com/Hitched2Trucks
march2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of march2023
