Our bonus structure is tied to several things – profitability, naturally, but also things like safety, on-time delivery and such. Thanks to a few ‘incidents’ including a recent one where someone put his hand through a table sander, we’ve lost the safety points. We’re on track to get about half of the overall bonus allocation percentage, though, if we can maintain through the end of the month.

Other than that… we’re in as good of shape as one might expect given the economy. Lots of future business is now in a nebulous state, as financing (specific to our industry, financing for construction) has, obviously, taken a huge hit of late. We’re usually booked solid 2-3 months in advance… so far, January is only 90-something percent booked.

Am I worried? No more than usual. This company’s been around for 30 years – it survived Carter’s recession as a startup. (Part of the rah-rah was service awards – this month, one gal hit 29 years.) But all the same, I’m still keeping an ear to the ground. Survival traits die hard…