What Causes Stress?

What Causes Stress?

This is funny. My husband’s job is listed as #4 of the least stressful jobs. I wonder if the list preparer actually spoke with any musical instrument technicians? It is a series of stresses.

The first stress comes in the late summer and fall when ALL of the schools want their instruments fixed and back so that they can have them during marching season. Of course every weekend a lot of those horns are back in the shop after being damaged at the weekly football game or band show.

Then we enter the late fall and winter when the concert horns have to be fixed in time for the annual holiday concerts. It’s the same deal as with the marching horns only with less weekly damage.

The holidays approach. Band directors don’t get their paperwork in because they’re so busy. The instrument tech doesn’t get paid. From now until the end of the school year Mr. Pete becomes primarily a bill collector. He will call, nag, cajole, and otherwise try to collect some of the tens of thousands that are owed to him. We will hopefully live off of our eBay sales, and tax refund, but sometimes things just don’t work out and we are forced to do stupid stuff and put stuff on the credit cards.

About April or May there will be a huge influx of money before it all dries up in June, July and August. Stir and repeat.

I hate this profession because it has to deal so closely with the bureaucracy of the public schools and the ridiculous way they handle their vendors. I would never encourage anyone to get into it unless they could work only on elite horns, for elite customers and maybe do some piano tuning on the side.

Least stressful job indeed.

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