C.Y.A.

[Les Smith]

Newton: I would like to join the others in expressing my surprise and dismay
at your recent post. I find it absolutely incredible that you were never made
aware of any complaints or problems during the course of the year and given
the opportunity to address them as they occured. (if, in fact, they did). In-
stead, by blind-siding you with this near the end of the year, I have to
agree with Larry Fisher that this sounds like it could be the first step in
trying to squeeze you out entirely. Even if it's not so, it's probably in
your best interest to assume and prepare for the worst. The real problem is
going to occur when you return in September. In essence, you will be asked
to do MORE work (the pianos will have suffered from your 2+ month absence),
in less time, for less money.. It's one thing to be over-worked and under-
paid. Most of us have to live with that. However it's quite another thing to
be unappreciated as well, and apparently that is the situation in which you
now find yourself. Given all this, yet having to internalize your feelings,
means that when you go back to work in the Fall, you are going to be working
under conditions of tremendous pressure and strain. That kind of stress can
seriously affect your health. It can even be a killer. Literally.

Certainly one way you can reduce that stress is by, as Larry put it, di-
versifying your portfolio of income options. Right now your immediate eco-
nomic future is controlled by those who have already demonstrated a total
lack of respect, concern and appreciation for you, your skills and your
efforts on their behalf. It sounds like the hand-writing is on the wall,
and before the other shoe drops, you should start making plans in anticipa-
tion of the worst. Actually it may only SEEM like the worst now, in the
longer run it may turn out to be the best.

My own career has gone through several stages. At first I curtailed my
institutional work when I found I was killing myself tryinmg to do 8-10
pianos a day. Later I curtailed much of my concert work, because it re-
quired too great an investment of time on my part, not all of which I
was getting paid for. For the last decade or so I've concentrated on
doing tuning and service work for long-standing clients and their referrals
and rebuilding in my shop. The stress is gone. The wasted time is gone.
And I work for people who both appreciate and are willing to pay for
my skills. If you start thinking about and making some moves in that dir-
ection it could put control of your economic furture back in your own
hands where it belongs. Whatever you decide  to do, I am sure that we all
join together in wishing you the very best.

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net