A frustratingly hard week with too much time and capacity devoted to re-blending the gloopy stuff and a total output below the 50,000L target. We did get the 48,000L shipped despite some annoyance concerning the container arrivals and document completion. We did manage to use the 5,000L vessel to make a couple of batches and begin to get a grip on the measurement of viscosity in process and so avoid the production of out of spec batches. Very much work in progress!

Frustrating example of the consequence of using an erroneous SDS supplied by the dye solution Client and a resulting claim for the cost of the container labelling rectification. This will be pushed back to the Client but I’m in no doubt that this story has some distance to run.

Also annoying that no sooner the long delayed ingredient had arrived for the pesticide blend, our Client for that product was chasing for completion. Not in itself surprising but a bit galling to discover that having increased the order and caused us to purchase an increased quantity of the excipient they had then reduced the order again without telling anyone. Fortunately we received another order from another Client on Friday that will allow us to use the material.

Considerable time spent on the micronutrient packing job involving 12 different products for a total of 10,000 litres. The frustration here is that the Client had failed to supply all of the components to complete the job which interrupts the production process and causes inefficiencies. The really annoying thing is that we failed to count the components on arrival (not an easy job but one that is part of our receipts procedure) and so we didn’t know that we were short before we started. This meant that we needed to request additional components from the Client three times in all, which puts us on the back foot when the Client asks why we didn’t list all of the shortages the first time.

This sorry story brings into focus all of the problems associated with serving the Client with what is a complex series of very similar jobs with very similar names in relatively small quantities. I feel that the solution lies with our producing a spreadsheet that is used by all parties in the course of the process from order to despatch.

With regard to new work, I was pleased to pull the order from our new client for the fuel treatment product into shape and get all of the materials on order with a plan to produce before the Summer shutdown. We are also nearly ready for the first production run of the vegetable oil lubricant product which will be good to get off the list ‘though I’m not convinced that this will be a long-term relationship.

Perhaps the most significant event concerned an ex-employee and a situation outside work. The company and I had sponsored this individual in his Degree course during the last few years and my wife and I were keen to attend his graduation for the award of a First. This sort of Ceremony attendance is usually the privilege of proud parents and followed by a posh lunch in town but our protégé is estranged from his parents. In retrospect I believe that our encouraging his attendance, gown and mortar board and all, was doomed from the beginning. I remember arguing to my father that my own Graduation Ceremony was a nonsense and waste of resources but he told me not to be silly and that we would all look back on the event with pride as one of life’s rites of passage. He was right and we had used the same argument.

In the event, having secured tickets for us both and made plans to attend I was surprised to be informed on the night before the Ceremony that the Graduand did not possess any suitable clothes to wear on the following day. I duly loaned a couple of suits, shirts and ties and agreed to collect and transport him to the appointed place for robing at 08:00 in the morning.

The following morning I had taken a day off work and so I logged on to complete some last-minute tasks in order to relax for the rest of the day. I was surprised to find two messages, one before midnight changing the arrangements for the morning and one at 06:20 to say that as he had a migraine he would not be able to attend the Ceremony after all. We called on him at the agreed time to check if things had changed and it was clear that our day out was no more. My wife cancelled the posh lunch and we both went to work. We both feel very disappointed at how things turned out and we hope that what we witnessed is not an indicator of our protégé’s future behaviour in similar situations even as it does mark the end of our relationship with him. Not having attended he will never understand the “rite of passage” thing and will therefore miss his doctorate ceremony too, probably.

I have been trying to distil a general lesson from this with a view to attempting to motivate our office apprentice to take more personal responsibility for her tasks. Her failure to do so is annoying to her co-workers and contributing to a sub-optimal performance in the office as a whole.

So setting aside the fact that I’ve become a grumpy old man and young people are all spoiled wastrels, (not true!) what is the point I’m trying to make?

One of life’s lessons is that respect and satisfaction usually follows from the completion of tasks as agreed. The failure of the Graduand to go through with the agreed plan deprived him of the satisfaction inherent in the memory of the event and the respect of my wife and I for allowing us to share it with him.

The completion of a list of tasks as agreed or planned via a time management schedule is inherently satisfying (ticking off the list, keeping a promise or fulfilling an objective). The respect follows from fellow team members, superiors or customers recognising that you can be relied on to keep your promise and that they can then fulfil their own tasks which may depend on yours being completed.

The excuses that may be available for non-completion provide little or no compensation for the loss of respect for failure but by contrast can provide a source of additional respect if the sources of the excuses are overcome and the objectives fulfilled anyway.

Disappointment and loss of satisfaction and respect follows from unfulfilled promises.