Monday, June 16, 2014

Work, work, work

 
Lance has always been an extremely hard worker. A lot of people, myself included, often get trapped doing just the bare minimum to get by. You show up to work on time, but only just so. You do everything in your job description, but rarely seek to go the extra mile. Breaks may be a few minutes longer than they are supposed to be and you might get caught on your phone every once in a while.

This is not the case with Lance.

In the 5 years I have watched him work, I have been impressed time and time again with his work ethic. (And sometimes slightly annoyed by it!)

He likes being the first one at work, or if he's working later in the day, he will just show up super early. He never stops working. Once one job is complete, he moves straight onto the next. I think sometimes it can rub some of his employees the wrong way. Instead of being completely focused, they like to chat and take their time while they work. Once they finish, they would rather sit around and relax for a bit. But Lance is a pusher. He works hard and he hates seeing those around him not putting in an equal effort. He pushes his employees to be better workers. And while they may not like it, one day they might appreciate him for it.

He is constantly thinking about how his actions look to his employees. He tries to always be the best example possible.

But not only does Lance put a lot of effort into his 40 hour work week, he works hard at home too. He has almost single-handedly planted and taken care of our enormous garden. He helps out with the kids and anything else I may ask of him.

Now to top it all off, he has a second job. A friend in our ward, Chris Gunderson, owns his own wood working business and asked Lance if he would like to help out. We were originally thinking that Lance would just go in for an hour or two after the kids were asleep, and try to get 10-12 hours per week at the shop. They have been building stuff for this 13,000 sq ft house that is supposed to be in the parade of homes. Well somehow, everyone on the house got really behind and have been on a mad rush trying to finish it in time for the parade, which starts this weekend.

Chris has been sleeping at his shop and working non-stop around the clock. I think he has only been home a few times in the last few weeks and is running on very little sleep. He has asked Lance to come in whenever he can.  So Lance has been getting off work at the DI around 4:30p, coming home for a quick bite to eat, then heading to the shop until around 11p. Then he's up at 6a to start the day over. He also works with Chris on his day off. Several times he has come home from work and instantly crashed. After he sleeps for 30 minutes or so, he's off to his next job.

He's exhausted. I'm exhausted.

But I'm grateful that he is willing to work so hard. This couldn't have come at a better time as I was just starting to freak out about finances. I even had several job interviews myself trying to figure out how we were going to get by.

I know the last week or two have been difficult. It'll be a major relief once this project is finished. Then hopefully his job with Chris wont be quite as intense. Lance enjoys that kind of work, so I am happy that he has something that he likes doing that also brings in some extra money.

Lance works so hard for us and asks so little in return.  I'm grateful for all he does. I got me a good one. Love you.