What’s the slowest month in your field/industry?

"Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras" (jegoingout) 02/26/2019 at 10:00 • Filed to: None

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I know Oppo has people in various careers/fields, and I’m curious to know what’s the slowest month(s) in said career.

Right now it’s been painfully slow on my side...with the month ending in three days I’ve not even hit half my normal quota. Kind of sucks but that’s the life of sales, should pick up a lot once the seaon changes. 

Sovande > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:06

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December and January. I work in commercial construction.

It's busy right now though. The police just came to our job site and locked us in because there is a guy running around with a gun. Welcome to DC. 

Tripper > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:06

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A slight lull during the holidays (late Dec to early Jan), but that’s really it. It’s slow in the office during the summer because people are away, but we don’t do any less business. - Private equity C level recruiting.

TorqueToYield > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:07

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August.

75% of the company is on vacation as well as most of my suppliers and customers.

“Why isn’t this or that getting done? Well, my boss who makes those decisions is on vacation, the machinist at the supplier who makes it for us is on vacation, half our production crew is on vacation, and there’s one person in the sales department this week”.

Seems silly there isn’t just 2 weeks in August everybody gets off. It’d make the rest of the summer way more productive.

This is in e ngineering and light manufacturing.

smobgirl > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:09

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January - early February, but there are a lot of factors that can affect us . I work in a field associated with commercial lending.

Tapas > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:10

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December.

I take a day off for Tapasmas and they look at me funny. But some dude from a few centuries ago gets a damn holiday season ! Apparently the west has a Jesus boner. The east is no better. Way too many gods.

I’m not opposed to holidays. I just want the spaghetti monster and all my imaginary friends to have one too.

facw > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:10

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In my slice of retail land, March and April tend to be our slowest months. Some of that is structural, since there are seasonal changes in demand for our products, but a lot of it is just because we don’t have any big holiday sales then (Easter: not a big shopping holiday).

In my previous industry, it was December/January just because we had a B2B focus, and you had so many people OOO around the holidays, that it was hard get things scheduled, and even if you managed to do that, the approval process just dragged on because you had a hard time getting all the decision makers you needed to sign off on things.

Future Heap Owner > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:11

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August and December, when most people take time off (software).

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:12

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Definitely slow the last couple weeks of the year, just because so many people are out of the office (me included). I work for a small oil & gas producer - we’re slow right now because we dropped our rig a few months back (due to low oil prices and high service costs), but we’re about to pick one  back up since prices have come back some and we’ve gotten some relief on costs. So, things are definitely cyclical, but not seasonal.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:13

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In the big infrastructure engineering world, it’s not seasonal, it’s about the availability of tax dollars. As long as there’s funding for roads, bridges, airports, rail, and to a lesser extent levees and environmental work, my company stays in the black.

I work more on disaster recovery , so my work is tied to funding following a natural disaster . I had more work than I could stand after hurricane Katrina and “super storm” Sandy. There was a dry spell, then we had a couple of large unnamed floods in Louisiana. After another dry spell (and a short furlough), Harvey came to visit Houston. Now I’ll be busy for another five years.

Azrek > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:14

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Thanksgiving to New Years. Government is on half days or just not here. So nothing gets done. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:16

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Everything is dependent on the fiscal year ending in October so November and December are ludicrously slow. Seeing as we have no funding and people tend to take more vacation then anyways. But I hate wasting any vacation time around then, would rather use it when winter is fully underway for skiing (like now) or mid summer for other outdoor stuff. 

ttyymmnn > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:18

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As a professional musician, summer is by far the slowest month(s). Although things are very slow for me right now because I play third trumpet and the orchestra isn’t playing any pieces that call for three trumpets. So my slow times are often based entirely on concert  programming.

smobgirl > TorqueToYield 02/26/2019 at 10:23

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Haha. We had a couple Swedish guys in our old office building and I never figured out what their business was, but apparently in Sweden they shut everything down for several weeks in the summer so these guys did too. They were a blast, I miss chatting with them.

shop-teacher > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:23

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Well, as a teacher, it’s clearly June and July.  Although there are usually meetings and trainings sprinkled in, as well as shop maintenance (unpaid, of course, but thems the breaks).  This year I may teach summer school.  We start back up mid-August, but as a department head my stupid meetings usually start the first week of August.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:23

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this month (tho... this ones worse than usual) (but yeah.. i make gas burners for boilers and stuff.. people/builders want those before winter... should be picking up again soon... but who knows we pissed off a lot of big customers last year)

ah well got another job interview thursday after work.. we’ll see what im doing next week

Chariotoflove > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:30

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Biomedical research. December is hard to get anything done with. Experiments take a while to plan, so the wind down into the holidays starts early. 

The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:33

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My old job was Spring & Fall. In summer the ski resort has lots going on, & it’s right on the water. In winter lots come up for ski’ing & snowboarding.

Chuckles > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:35

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I work in a contract pharma lab (we perform testing for other clients), so while the workflow can be unpredictable, December and January are typically the slowest months for us because not as many clients are signing new scopes of work and starting new projects over the holidays. But a fair amount of our work is stability testing (storing batches of drugs and then testing them every few months to see if they degrade), so there's usually at least something to do even if new projects aren't kicking off.

cbell04 > ttyymmnn 02/26/2019 at 10:37

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I played the trumpet through middle school and really loved it. I owned a nice nickel Campbell don’t know if it was any good or not but it looked much nicer than most the school loaners. Wish I would have continued. I can’t even read music anymore. Can still blast out a few tunes from memory when I come across one here and there. Always supprises anyone around when you randomly pick up an instrument and rock it out. True story I only played the trumpet because my dad blew his trans in an old work van right near a junk yard we got the junkyard to swap in a trans while we waited and the guy tossed in the trumpet because I was screwing around with it in his shop and figured out how to play a super rough taps pretty quickly. Wish I would have kept that thing. 

ttyymmnn > cbell04 02/26/2019 at 10:40

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That’s a great story. I don’t remember how I decided to play. I just remember coming home from school one day and saying, “Mom, I want to play trumpet.” That was fourth grade, because they started kids in band at that age in Chicago back then (we’re talking 1974). I just recently bought new horns, and my wife asked if I was going to sell my old ones, like the Bach I’ve had for 40 years. Nope, not a chance. 

Wurrwulf > Sovande 02/26/2019 at 10:43

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Same. With the holidays in late November thru New Year’s, a lot of out-of-town contractors head back home for weeks at a time. Winter is also a pretty wet season for us, limiting work days. Plus, funds for upcoming projects may not be released until after Jan/Feb .

My project is 7-months behind schedule, and it has still been fairly slow compared to the summer months.

BigBlock440 > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:45

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January-February, manufacturing construction materials.  Everybody starts buying for projects and building when the weather breaks in March, busy through the summer, then people stock up on in the fall.  Usually running light on orders by then and shifts start to get cut short.  Of course I’m not slow, that’s the time when we start to move, upgrade, or replace equipment because it won’t affect our orders too much.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:52

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Toward the end of the year is usually slow for both sales and production (specialized equipment used by certain testing industries and long-term stability storage for pharmaceuticals and labs). This time of year is achingly slow for production, but I have been working my ass off on sales proposal drawings (I do part design and customer drawings both, as well as generating electrical specs, heat loss calculations, etc.)

BeaterGT > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:53

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Fint ech - Summer months . Everyone checks out/vacations until late Q3 and year end when shit has to be delivered. Chaos rolls into Q1 usually.

RutRut > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:53

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For sales, October. No one wants to buy anything right before SEMA.

Sovande > Wurrwulf 02/26/2019 at 10:54

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I have been brought out to help on a job that is 6 months behind. I am generally an office guy, but I'll be down here for a few weeks. Not excited. 

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 10:57

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December usually (Auto OEM supplier, mechanical stuff)

WiscoProud > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 11:07

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Summer is typically pretty slow for us in the valuation field. Lot of businesses and lawyers are on vacation, so the leads dry up and you can’t get a hold of anyone at the jobs you do have. Works well for us though. 

vicali > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 11:10

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Tough to say, local gov’t always has something on the go.. Summer is slow though, most people are away and things take longer to do. As long as there are no fires.

412GTI > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 11:20

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For me in Craft Beer/Restaurants, this month and last have been our slowest. January was especially slow one the holiday bustle ended. February was okay, some of our weekends have been great and very busy. Just depends a lot of the weather mostly. Our distributor sales stay pretty consistent which is decent.

Kiltedpadre > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 11:46

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For us it’s highly weather dependent. I guess I should add that I’m in water/sewer operations.

Really cold times are busy due to main breaks and replacing assets that people hit when they slide on ice and snow (hydrants, sample taps, etc.).

Warm months are busy because of planned upgrades, replacements, and expansion projects.

Late fall and early spring generally aren’t as busy because upgrades aren’t being planned Incase the weather gets unexpectedly cold. 

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 11:51

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Never. This shit all winter:

keeps us chasing trucks around because they don’t want to shut them down for maintenance for a second longer than they need to be. The snow starts letting up in April, but then the summer functions of our fleet start rolling out too, we’re scrambling to get vehicles running that seasonal staff essentially abandonned in the fall and usually forgot where it was parked. Then we spend the summer keeping on top of light fleet maintenance (summer students and the dregs of the fleet go together nicely)   while completely tearing down the heavy plows to make sure they’re in pristine mechanical condition for A ugust when the snow starts and we start chasing the plows around again.

I guess summers are less chaotic because there’s not so much pressure to get the trucks back clearing the second busiest route through the Canadian Rockies , but there's no real lull. Except like the couple days before a major storm is about to hit where you've done the bare (safe) minimum to get the trucks going just to get through the storm and we don't want to start into a bigger project that will leave the truck in pieces for the storm. 

gmctavish needs more space > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 11:54

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Usually Jan/Feb, but only the first week or so of January was slow, and we’ve been busy since then. Enough new studios have opened that everyone is busy pretty much all the time now. I work in a warehouse that rents props/set dec/wardrobe to movies, TV, and commercials. The whole film industry is going a bit crazy up here. 

Wacko > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 12:13

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I work in a open pit Gold Mine that operates 24/7.  so no slow days/months.

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 12:52

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December as everyone is out on PTO and nobody wants to make a change that might break something in production. 

bob and john > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 13:23

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Jan and Feb are my slow months. Motorcycle sales in canada dont really happen in the winter

FSI > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 13:40

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End of December until the end of February/ beginning of March. Tire changing season is right around the corner though, which is hell.

XJDano > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 13:55

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Winter is usually slow, come June 1 though all the schools need asbestos removed prior to any other construction projects that are effected by it. So summer we are slammed. 

TechJunky > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/26/2019 at 14:47

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Generically, spring and fall.  Typically April, October, and November are the slowest, though the last few years, slow has been a very relative term and we’ve still stayed busy (a good thing).  As we continue to diversify and get into new markets, this will continue to average things out and maintain business year-round as opposed to being more seasonly driven.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/27/2019 at 03:53

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January.

mechanics are closed over christmas break generally, and people instead of spending money on cars spend money on getting kids ready for new school year.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/28/2019 at 13:05

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May; I’m a teacher.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > smobgirl 02/28/2019 at 13:06

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I would die of boredom. Live large; become a middle school teacher. The day is never dull. Long, exasperating, uplifting at times, but never dull.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 02/28/2019 at 13:07

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Damn fracker.

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 02/28/2019 at 13:25

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Two months from now. Things will always slow down two months from now when we can catch up and do everything correctly. Next month the answer will be the same. As it will be in two months. And three months. And four months. The answer will always be two months from now.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/28/2019 at 14:16

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That’s me...

smobgirl > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/28/2019 at 21:47

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Lol, I used to teach music to middle & high school kids part time  from November to April. I totally get it :)