[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