Guidelines/workload formula

[Vanderhoofven]

At 10:25 AM 2/4/02, Fred Sturm wrote:

>PS From a personal standpoint, my workload is double Wim's (80 at half
>time), so my tunings take more time. All but the concert grand are
>always a pitch change. So I budget 2 hours per piano. Almost never spend
>more than 1 1/2 hour (usually 1 to 1 1/4) actually tuning an individual
>piano. The rest is small repairs, adjustments, office, and coffee break.
>That is to say, when I am mostly tuning, 4 pianos in an eight hour day
>is what I consider a sustainable load. But I _am_ speaking of full
>tunings here, moving pitch of every string.

I  am tuning on an as needed basis for two colleges locally.

One college has climate control on most of the pianos (although not kept 
filled with water on regular basis).  I can expect a 10 to 20 cent pitch 
change at every tuning at this college.  I do little to no repairs or 
regulation because of budget constraints, and because of budget cuts this 
year, the tuning budget has been cut again.  Some pianos there haven't been 
tuned in two or three years.  The concert pianos get tuned about once a 
month or less.  The practice room pianos get tuned about once a semester, 
or once a year.  Teachers studios get tuned once a semester, or once a year.

At the other college, there is no humidity control, and I can expect a 20 
to 35 cent pitch change at every tuning, usually twice a year.  I am just 
filling in at this other college and am not sure of how often the pianos 
are usually tuned.

I don't have time to work out aony of the Guidelines formulas for these 
situations.  I am concentrating on my private customers, who pay more and 
for the most part keep their pianos in better regulation etc.  Plus, with 
my private customers, there are less pitch raises necessary, and I don't 
have to do the pitch corrections for free.

I get no coffee breaks, unless I do it on my own time and pay for it 
myself.  Currently the only office work I do is to keep track of the work I 
do and send bills.  I have in the past spent lots of time writing detailed 
reports about every piano, along with recommendations for repairs and 
regulation, but since my reports get ignored (and I don't get paid for the 
time) I stopped doing this a while back.

Just my two cents.

David Vanderhoofven
Joplin, Missouri, USA