When Distress Turns Into Stress

I can always hear the exasperation in a customer’s voice when they call needing a truck towed. While having your personal truck down can ruin your day, if a truck used for business is down, that is distress that turns into stress. Not only are you looking at the downtime and the cost of towing and repair bills, you have to deal with so much more — delays in deliveries, frustrated customers, etc.

I’ve heard from many vehicle repair facilities telling customers they are sometimes three to four weeks out – maybe even longer. The shortage of mechanics is part of the problem, but most often it’s not getting the needed parts.

My distress level went to stress level when one of our heavy-duty tow trucks was down, and we were having a hard time finding the part. It doesn’t matter if you have a large or small company, when one of your tow trucks is down, you are down. Thankfully, with some help from other towers and extended research, the truck is now in the bay getting put back together.

You would think that after all the years I’ve been in business, when the “you-know-what” hits the fan, I would calmly handle this type of situation. When you are in business, something to put a damper on your day is bound to happen. But, if every day was perfect, you wouldn’t be able to grow and learn to be and do better. Switching to an attitude of gratitude helps — even though the truck is down, nobody got hurt.

Distress, stress and dessert are all spelled with “ss.” My advice? Deep breaths, calm down, and then have dessert.