Thursday, August 25, 2005

Time Keeps On Tickin',Tickin' Tickin'...........

Ever wonder how much time you lose to interuptions, snafus, and general mayhem at work? Have you ever thought, "If they'd only leave me alone, I'd get all this work done!" Well, I have, and I decided to look into it. I did this once before at another job. It was pretty amazing. Check this out.

Total Time Spent At Work
August 24th, 2005, 7hrs. 30min.

1. Time spent helping customers on sales floor......................2hrs, 8min.

2. Time spent answering and handling phone calls...............13 min.

3. Time spent listening to Leans On Wood.............................32min.

4. Lunch Time.............................................................................16 min.

5. Time spent actually working on bicycles.............................4hrs, 21 min.

Pretty cool! I thought I got interrupted more than this. It might be helpful to know that besides two customers, the most time spent helping a customer was five minutes or less! You know, "just looking" types? Or asking quetions and leaving right away, or picking up repairs. Also, I was alone out on the floor for th first 5hrs, 30 minutes until Mr. 24 came into work. So, these "little" interuptions are pretty devastating when your up to your elbows in grease and trying to adjust bicycles as best you can.

I'll be doing more random time studies in the future. Maybe you should try it too? That way when the boss says, "How come you didn't get that done?", you can show him how many minutes got wasted doing other schtuff!

On a completely unrelated note: Check out this sneak peak at SRAM's new road shift/ brake levers, due out next year. If these things work well, Shimano is going to be in trouble! Check out the simiarity in lever shape. Patent infringement, anyone? I like the campy-esque cable routing. Clean machine!

Okay, folks! Mr Ryan Atkinson of Fisher Bicycles has informed me that I was misinformed about Fisher's intents concerning the Super Caliber Race Day 29"er bike, and tubeless tire/ rim production for 29"ers. I say, we'll see about that! Show me the products when you guys say they will be out, and I'll believe it then. My source at Trek didn't say the stuff would never come out, just that it wouldn't be anytime soon! Besides, a late spring intro of the Race Day bike puts that model nearly into Trek's '07 model year! Whatever, doode! And as for Mr. Atkinson's attendance at the Single Speed World Championships is concerned, he says it was a welcomed relief from a week's worth of Trek Show. Well, I guess that means the po-dunk dealers that showed up Saturday through Monday must either have been too much of a pain to deal with, or they were unworthy, or BOTH! Last time I checked, the customers walking in our shops door at 7:55pm. deserved as much attention as the ones that showed up at 9:02 am.! I guess Trek doesn't follow the same business model that the retail outlets do for customer service. Hmmm....

Ah! Too much black goodness this morning, I guess! Rant mode off!

3 comments:

Tim Grahl said...

Now come on there GT, take it easy on ole Ryan. I'm guessing the SSWC was a relief to the busy-ness that was the Trek Show.

I for one know Ryan cares about his retailers cause he jumped on me at one point when he heard that we may have pissed off our LBS.

Everything ended up being a misunderstanding that got worked out, but he made sure to error on the side of taking care of his retailers.

JG said...

Ask the expert...

I've been debating disc brakes for about a year now, but haven't seen the light. Other than the ease of keeping them clean in mud, what's the big deal? I've raced with V brakes for two years now, and seem to be doing just fine with them. Is it weight? Is it the smothness of braking? Is it worth the $???

Thanks!

Jed

All3Sports said...

I waste 12-20 minutes each day reading everyone's blogs!!