Loading…
17
Breaking from the 9 to 5 mold helped my gunsmith shop do better
I hear a lot of gunsmiths say you need set hours to run a good shop, but I found the opposite after I let my team pick their own times. We keep a short window open for customers, from 10 am to 2 pm, but my workers come in when they feel most awake and ready. My main stock fitter, for instance, starts at 7 am and leaves by 3 pm, and his work has less errors since the change. I once believed a tight schedule meant we were all on the same page, but it just made people tired and rushed. Now, jobs get done faster, and my crew is happier because they balance home life easier. Sure, it took a few weeks to get used to, but with simple check-ins and respect, we make it work. I would not go back to forcing everyone into the same old clock in and out routine.
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
jenniferj657mo ago
Totally get this, we switched to something similar last year and it fixed so many headaches. Had to cross-train everyone on basic tasks so early birds could handle phone calls before the customer window opened, lol. @mila_jenkins43 is right, burnout was real before. Now if someone's kid gets sick, they just make up the hours later without stressing. The key was having one shared calendar so we always know who's around.
4
davis.fiona7mo ago
How do you handle managers who worry this makes team goals harder to track? Jenniferj65, that shared calendar you mentioned probably helps bosses see the work is still getting done, just on a different clock.
6