Ask yourself if you feel perceived as a micromanager. If you do, are you? Are you a micromanager? 

If the answer to the above is yes, there are two possible reasons: 

1) You don't trust what your employee(s) or consultants do. 

And/Or

2) You are operating on such thin margins that you are trying to accomplish more work in a smaller period of time so you can actually bill for it.

If the former from the above is true, ask yourself why you would hire employees and/or consultants you don't trust. Did you hire them because there you thought there was no one better? Why keep on working with them if you are dissatisfied? 

If the latter is true- every business needs cashflow. Do you have a line of credit so you can cover the slow periods? Also- do you have any "bread and butter" projects that won't necessarily make it to your porftolio but you would use to pay the bills? If not, you consider getting some.

Anyone else thought this was a jla-x thread?

When was the last time you took a break or holiday?

You probably need a reboot.

I am there with you too, Larchinect. We have been so busy for so many months yet the profits don’t reflect how hard we are all working. Developers seem to enjoy beating me down on the fee, but I am frankly not the kind of person who feels comfortable beating down my own subs on their fees, so we eat the difference, typically. I also have not had time for a decent vacation in over 18 months So I haven’t had a real mental reset in a while.

I think part of your concern is that you’re afraid your employees will think badly of you? Transparency goes along way in helping them understand. If you haven’t done this already a brief sit down - maybe provide lunch! - with them in which you describe some of the realities of how hard it is to keep things running might help? Express appreciation for all of their hard work at the same time, and give them a feeling of “we are all in this together.” 

Hang in there. It’s a hard profession, seriously.

Has anyone actually sat down with a developer and did the hour calculations in front of him? Just curious...

"Trickle down' is the idea that if you feed a pig enough, a few morsels will pass through undigested for the rats to eat. It is also the idea that when people at the top lie, cheat, steal (and doG knows what else) without consequence, those behaviors 'trickle down' through society.

What you're describing is what you get when criminals are in charge. I've found these behaviors (royalty-level entitlement based on wealth and blood sport competition between those serving them) increasingly prevalent throughout society. The higher the finance the worse it is. Having ethics often serves to make you an easy target. 

In other words, it's not you. Integrity is about the last thing you want to have in smash-and-grab culture where 'justice' is based on wealth. It's every man for himself, and fuck everyone else. This is not going to end well.

As my old man used to say, "If you're lucky you get a choice. You can eat or you can sleep."

If you do quality work don't do it for less just to have the work. It becomes the new normal and will always bite you in the ass. I've seen good architects go down because they try to please developers/clients too much, who then simply don't return the favour for follow-up work and apply the same trick at another fool dangling that carrot of repeat commissions. It is totally okay to be an asshole when you are trying to reach a certain level of quality, don't count on repeat clients by jumping through their hoops. In the end it is the quality of your past work that brings in your future client.

I took off last week for an extended weekend away with the fam.  Left with a metric shit-tonne of work still on the table.  Going back in tomorrow and feeling pretty damn good about the break.  None of the work was touched in my absence and the project is not my client to service, so not sure what's waiting for me as I have other clients waiting.  Oh well. 

Yeah, lots of good thoughts and perspective here from employees and employers alike. It's good to hear both sides.

We do operate on thinner margins, I'd say. Its just the nature of our operation at this time, but we also do have some larger bread and butter projects that keep us going. It is nonetheless a serious hustle every month. Yes, I'm whining a little because Id rather whine here than in the office, lol.

I definitely dont think I'm cut out to be an 'employer/boss.' I'm a designer and I generally love what I do and take pride in it. My primary motivation for being an owner is wanting to contraol/manage/facilitate the whole process and do more interesting work on my terms. I see the business side as an extension of my design process--Finding projects, getting to know clients and the places we work, managing budgets and deliverables, and delivering value. It's all part of the design product in my view. Just doing drawings  is fairly easy. Just being a 'boss' doesnt necessarily interest me.

I think I mostly need a break.

There’s a book called the E-Myth, why most small businesses fail. There’s a version specifically for architects. Essentially it lays out a few questions of Have you trained any of your employees? Do you offer training? Do you have specific performance guidelines and standards that your employees understand and can manage. Are these guidelines easily accessible and can they easily be used to train replacements. Until you do that you’ll be the one doing all the work and taking ownership on all the work. Architecture firms big and small that I’ve worked at have never implemented a solid performance guideline and training program and expect their employees to just know what’s expected from them. So it takes them months/years to figure out exactly what this manager/employer expects. I’d listen to the whole book when you can, it’s specificaly for your situation.

Not taking vacations and then bitching and moaning about it but also proud of it is a patently American thing.

I feel sorry for anyone who runs a business.  I don't have it in me and consequently won't ever be rich, but it sounds like most owners are just treading water here.  Having worked with developers, all I can offer is to provide value that they can't themselves, meaning be more than a pencil that can get permits in a timely fashion.  Easier said than done I know, but best of luck and take a break.  It shouldn't be architorture.