Crazy Consulting Stories

My wife thinks I work too much, and she's probably right.  Although the answer depends on who you're comparing me to.

I have a lot of friends and family members for whom their job is just a means to a certain lifestyle.  So they clock in and clock out, and they're good at what they do and give it 100 percent.  But it's pretty well contained to 9 to 5, and you won't find them itching to put in time on evenings, weekends, and vacations.  Compared to them, I work many more hours.

I also have a lot of friends and family members for whom their job is an all-encompassing passion and craft.  They're still committed to their family members and have hobbies, but their heart and therefore as much time as possible is devoted to their career.  Compared to them, I work way fewer hours.




I also suppose that whether I work too much depends on when you catch me.  Consulting, as all professional services, can have pretty significant ebbs and flows, since we're beholden to our clients' needs, fluid timelines, and unforeseen changes.  Our firm is probably less up and down than others, but at many places you have multiple all-nighters one week or multiple business trips one month, and you're "on the beach" (the consulting term for being in between projects) another week or in the home office all another month.

Compared to that, my schedule is much more predictable, even during a global shutdown.  (And, I don't travel that much, and right now of course I don't travel at all.)  There are hours I work, other hours I don't work, and a few hours where it depends on how impending a deadline is.  It's a little crazy, especially with wanting to be a good husband and dad as well as serving on my local school board.  But I manage, most weeks.

Ah, but every consultant has at least a few crazy consulting stories.  I'm no road warrior, so I have fewer than most.  But here are some memorable moments in my consulting career date to date.

1. The 30-hour workday.  Yep, that's right, I actually logged 30 hours one day.  I had a set of business meetings in Arkansas, which I flew to and back in the same day via Chicago, so all told I had 15 hours of travel plus 5 hours of meetings.  Plus, while on the plane and in the airport, I logged another 8 hours working on another project.  If that wasn't enough (especially after leaving the house at 4 that morning), when I got home at midnight, I logged 2 hours for yet another project that I was on deadline for.  15 + 5 + 8 + 2 = 30!

2. What time zone am I in?  I had a gig a few years back that required multiple trips to Honolulu.  For which I spent a grand total of 2 hotel room nights and 10 minutes in the ocean, because I wanted to get back to my family.  But I do recall one of those trips, in which after a full day and night of meetings I woke up at 2am local time (8am East Coast time) so that I could run conference calls for different projects at (all East Coast time) 9am, 10am, 11am, 12pm, and 1pm.  When the last call ended at 2pm East Coast time, that meant it was 8am local time and time for me to head out for my first meeting at 9am.  When my meetings ended at 7pm, I went straight to the airport and caught a red-eye home.

3. Around-the-clock shifts.  This one doesn't involve travel, just weird work schedules right here at home.  I have a co-worker who is a bit of a night owl, and as you may know I've forced myself into severe morning person status.  We were working on a proposal and pressed up against an impossible due date.  So we tag-teamed the writing of entire sections, and he would typically sign off at 3:45am and I would sign on at 4:00am.  Forget having offices in New York, London, and Tokyo in order to work around the clock without a break; we did it all from Philly!