Greenhouse work is never ending...or so it seems right now

The work just seems to go on and on lately.  Storms this week kept inside a couple of days to knock out some serious amounts of plants, but there is still so much ahead of us before the last plant has been put in its place.  Empty spaces in the propagation area means work is getting done.  It is all the full spaces that get a bit overwhelming at times.

We still have much vegetative propagation to complete.  We were having great success with our bottom heat, but when I was getting shocks from it, our electrician determined that we were getting voltage leak from all our mats.  They weren't wired with grounded plugs as they should have been.  The manufacturer took them back, but that left us without the much needed bottom heat that was really promoting root growth on the cuttings.  I am going to make this a priority to find a substitute to get us through the remainder of the season.  Just another thing.
The rain really came down on Thursday.  We did not get the violent storms that caused damage just to the south of us, but our fields were flooded.  I was able to take a small crew and pull a few of our odd trees here and there without impact to the soil in those spots, but we still have so much to get out.  We need some dry days to get the rest out before temperatures force bud, and then we are stuck once again without the work being finished.

This feeling of never catching up is nothing new.  We have always had the glut of work which wears you thin every spring.  The one difference this year from my past experience is years of experience on the work crew.  What seems to be natural ways of doing things to me, is not the way that most of the staff has learned.  When I left the greenhouse in 2010, there was a retirement followed by another retirement.  New staff was brought on, but even two of those hires didn't stay on.  The retirement of the last of the "old guard" this year greatly diminished the years of experience of the staff.  Don't get me wrong, they know what they are doing.  They just don't know all the tricks for time saving and labor saving techniques.  
I don't like to intervene on a regular basis, but I also do not want to continue use of inefficient practices at the expense of labor hours being wasted.  Labor is your most important asset regardless of what our corporate culture will say.  Politics has been overrun by money from people who don't know what a hard days work is.  They continue to dismiss the working class as expendable.  This has caused an increased loss of morale in the workforce which continues to be compensated less as cost of living continues to increase.  I don't see this ending any time soon.  My staff is my most valuable asset.  Automation is just another tool, it is not the answer to replacing workers in this industry.
This has ended up being more of a soap box entry than a journal entry.  I have done laborer work since I was 15.  I know how hard this work is on the body.  I'm not that old but feel my years when I step out of bed in the morning.  I am not alone.  Just remember when you head out to the garden center this spring, that there was someone who put that seed in the dirt long before it came to you.  We do this not for the money, but because we love what we do.  I encourage you to go to the mom and pop greenhouses instead of the bargain areas of the big box stores for your garden plants.  You will be helping support a family business and receive plants that were well cared for.  Spend some time talking to the people who sell you your plants.  The person that will and can answer your questions is the one who deserves your dollars.