It finally got warm in Indiana, and I keep thinking that some afternoon soon I will take off work early just to get outside for a couple of hours before it gets dark. That shouldn’t be too difficult, since it doesn’t get dark until about 9:30, right? Well, let’s just say I haven’t been able to manage my time well enough to make that happen. I do realize the longer I go without finding a way to take some time off, the more stressed I seem to feel and the less energy I have available to respond to new or added requests. Worse yet, basic tasks like completing my quarterly reports seem to take longer than ever before, like there is some kind of residual effect that is dragging me down.
With any troubleshooting process, you have to look at the symptoms to understand the root cause of the problem. Once the symptoms are identified, it’s time to draw on the knowledge and experience you have to start to isolate possible causes. This situation is no different, it’s just a matter of figuring out what is really going on and then finding the solution. I remember learning about a lot of different kinds of “residual effects” when I was going to school, so I may be able to apply what I remember from then to make some sense of what is happening now.
From the electronics classes, something way back in my brain is telling me there is this thing called residual voltage. Oh, now I remember, that was what caused a guy I worked with a long time ago to almost fall off his lab stool! He had a capacitor out of an old defibrillator sitting on his work bench, and somehow managed to brush his hand across both of the terminals at the same time. Residual voltage: the charge remaining on the plates of a capacitor after initial discharge. That’s not the same kind of “residual effect” I am experiencing currently, although laughing at the memory of that event seemed to give me a boost of energy for a moment. Wait, what was the difference between residual voltage and residual charge? I don’t know, I think the other one had to do with batteries, and how a lower residual charge is better in batteries with nickel in them because it means the memory effect won’t be an issue.
Well, so far I am not really getting anywhere closer to understanding this issue of feeling like there is some kind of residual stress dragging me down. That’s it, residual stress is the term I was searching for! It wasn’t from the electronics classes at all, it was from one of the mechanical engineering classes.
Now that I have a valid term for this effect, the next obvious step is to do an Internet search and see what shows up, right?
- From www.toolingu.com: Residual Stress is defined as stress that remains in the composite after the force that originally caused the stress has been removed.
- From www.twi-global.com: tensile residual stresses may reduce the performance or cause failure of manufactured products. They may increase the rate of damage by fatigue … or cause other forms of damage such as shape change or crazing.
- Reduced performance or failure of manufactured products – I am not sure reports count as manufactured products, but since I don’t do any real work anymore, that is about as close to an output product as I get with my current job. The fact that it takes longer to prepare them is clearly an indication of reduced performance somewhere in the process.
- Fatigue, shape change, and crazing? Yes, that definitely describes what is happening when I don’t get away from that office before dark. I don’t take lunch breaks because I am trying to cram in every minute of time I possibly can, then when I leave for the day I am too tired to get any exercise. Both of those contribute in a negative way to the shape change. I am sure my crew will tell you that there are clear signs of crazing, too.
- Also from twi-global.com: residual stresses are self-balanced stresses caused by incompatible internal strains … may be generated or modified at every stage …
- Self-balanced and incompatible internal strains? Yes, that fits too. I do this to myself, always trying to do more than I can possibly fit into any normal week, and that applies to both my world at work and everything else that I try to do outside of my regular paid position. Therefore, the fact that I am being pulled from all directions makes it self-balancing and incompatible at the same time.
- May be generated or modified at every stage – Since there is always some new request, or some change in the project that was started last week, the stresses are different every day. Another symptom validated.
- From Ali Fatemi, via an excellent presentation developed and made available by the University of Toledo: Induce a wide variety of residual stress and their effects may be beneficial or detrimental. To improve fatigue resistance we should try to avoid tensile mean stress and have compressive mean stress.
- Effects may be beneficial? Well, in some cases I know I do my best work when there is an imminent deadline, so I guess that could fit.
- Tensile mean stress would be equivalent to stretching ourselves too thin, and I can see how that should be avoided to reduce fatigue. This one really makes sense.
Well, after all of this, I believe residual stress is a valid cause of all the symptoms I am experiencing. As in all troubleshooting and repair processes, once the root cause has been identified, the last step is to implement an appropriate solution. Fortunately, the web search offered one of those, too! I haven’t tried it yet, but here it is in case anyone else out there is experiencing similar issues … Residual Stress up to 70 percent off – www.sale-fire.com/Residual+Stress.
Wait a minute, that’s not a solution! I don’t need any more residual stress, even if it is available at fire-sale prices. What I need is some of that compressive mean stress, whatever that is. Oh, I get it, that’s what vacations are for, pulling yourself back together so you can tackle the next challenge with renewed energy. So the solution now becomes 1) Suck it up, cupcake, and get back to work or 2) Take a vacation!