Inflation is the Worst 

Jason just rattling off commodity prices of corn like its standard knowledge

I've bought a lot from wyrmwood. I don't need any more stickers with your logo or booklets with cartoon about the craftsman promise. Either only send them to first time customers or have a checkbox at checkout that says, please keep the sticker. Not sure how much that will save you but it's an easy cost saving measure.

This is the kind of thing I like. The transparency here is why I support Wyrmwood. If I see their prices going up, I want to know that the reason isn’t bullshit. I will happily pay 10% for products if I know that the craftsman on the floor are being taken care of. Hell, I’d be fine with that percentage being even a little higher if I know that my purchases are going to provide a quality standard of living for the craftsman that made that product. This is how companies should operate, with even the lowest paid employees in mind. That being said, if the MGT is going to take some time getting on the website, I’d be open-minded about a sit-stand desk (speaking as someone that exclusively works from home).

Cristaldi nailed it. Keep your good employees happy, because every other employer right now is going to throw money at them. I was "lucky" to get a 6% raise this year, but it'd be very easy for me to get anywhere from 15-60% just by interviewing and taking a new job.

The dead silence when Doug asked if anyone had any questions is the same dead silence after he asked about questions in the safety talk (pre stepping down) he had with employees. People who aren't confident enough aren't going to ask questions even if they have them in a large group, probably need to either ask people individually or ask the team leaders to talk to their groups. Unfortunately lay offs are something no one wants to do, but if you have people under performing it's not Wyrmwood's fault. Yearly or quarterly reviews could probably help employees either improve or at least understand when they get let go why they did and that they had a chance to improve and didn't.

It’s nice to see you take ownership of your employees livelihoods. Most companies appear to not care at all about how inflation is affecting their workers. That plywood from Russia thing is a kick in the balls though

This is what happened to me at the beginning of the year, I was looking to leave my current company. But my manager gave me a raise that I can’t refuse. At my field (tech) the best way to increase salary is to jump ship, but it’s too expansive to train someone new vs giving existing high performers raises. Good job Doug, you made the right call!

Cost of Living Allowances work. Decide whether or not management gets it based on how much more they are currently getting paid, but for the people on the floor, make it across the board.

Billiards, they are high end wood products that people are willing to spend alot on. I'd love to have Wyrmwood pool ques

This was a ten minute commercial for unionization.

Reviewing and providing additional training and performance plans for underperformers will likely be cheaper than layoffs, hiring, and training new folks; Christaldi is right. Ultimately, if you do lay folks off, don’t overburden your highperformers with too much additional work. If you do that, those highperformers will burnout quickly and either leave or become underperformers.

you want a good option, Kickstart a completely American line; everything: wood, magnets, everything sourced in America. Make it expensive. It will sell.

Price increase absolutely makes sense, and $35 being entry level is still totally doable AND still gets customers a beautiful product. I'm glad you guys are thinking about your employees livelihood in all of this. We should always try and take care of each other when time are tough! As for the question ABSOLUTELY YES, I need a raise. Thankfully the company I work for is implementing equity raises for lower level administrative employees (like me) within the next month or two. They're giving EVERYONE raises based on how long they've been working in our industry and I've got just under six years at this job under my belt. I'm going to go from $16.78 an hour to over $20 an hour for the first time ever in my 30 years of life. Honestly the news made me want to cry because my husband and I want to start a family and this is going to help so much. 😭

I liked the transitions they used today.

I like how my current company does it: We get a raise at the start of every year that is a flat match to inflation and then performance based bonuses

I appreciate this video being made because I learned something new. I would urge you folks to consider keeping the idea of layoffs internal for the sake of those who are about to lose their jobs. As a worker in a production shop, I find myself beat at the end of the day, I work hard, I do my best and I love working at my current job. However, I couldn't imagine seeing my employer posting a video or something of the like, talking about layoffs. That's an incredibly scary reality and I can't imagine the morale going up after a post such as this. If my employer made a public video like this, I'd be very frightened and worried about my job security since I'm "the new guy" in the shop (despite being a hard worker, I'm still the first in line for a layoff imo). I understand its necessary for your business and it's survival to make layoffs. Hopefully you're able to give your employees a couple weeks to find a new job and keep their heads above water during these difficult times. Stay strong folks!

The thing that kills me about Doug's monologue is that while there is some sound economic theory and common sense at running a business, the issues of some workers not meeting expectations is universal, and has nothing to do with any of the recent events. Furthermore, it's a solution that creates division where workers are essentially told they need to compete in order to continue existing outside of the workplace. I would much rather the message to be one of freezing or limiting new hires and rehabilitating subpar workers, helping them grow into the level of seniority that are held as role models of production and safety. With efficient, safe workers the company could spare themselves the pain of layoffs in the first place. Slow the "growth" phase of hiring and focus on "growth" of the individual, which the company is made of individuals. As this message stands, it's like Doug is trying to wash their hands of being responsible for neglecting the role of leadership, and saying "if you want your wages to go up, you must eliminate your colleagues to take their wages" and then listing all the market forces which always ebb and flow as the decider, not the role of management to plan and execute. If Doug truly is not the leader, and therefore is not guilty of neglecting the leadership role, then this is just giving their veiled conservative management talking points a platform (which I understand is theirs) to stand upon. Maybe Wyrmwood should offer stock to all employees and/or consider reorganizing as a co-op so that personal success is more closely tied with company success.

Similar situation here: my company (game dev) gave everyone what should have been a nice 5% raise, but because of inflation I'm still making less this year than last year. Yeah, they give out bonuses, but you know what's a lot nicer than a bonus? A flat pay raise.

Yo that clap transition was 👌😩

I'm really impressed that Wyrmwood wants to make sure the employees at the bottom of the wage scale are being taken care of first and foremost. I absolutely agree that a scaled percentage raise and an overall increase in price is the way to go about this. We all know Wyrmwood's quality and we are all ok with paying the higher prices for that quality their craftsmen bring, upping that price a bit changes nothing. As someone struggling to make a living wage its encouraging to know companies exist that want to do things the right way.

The thing about layoffs at a time like this, is there is an implication that your hiring practices are flawed. You're actually relying on it. What if your hiring practices were perfect? What if you review your workers and every single one is the best person you're ever going to hire for the job they're doing? Do you lay anyone off? If I were Doug, I think I would address people assuming this is the case, because if it turns out that the company simply has to let good people go in order to survive, those people deserve to hear that.

I appreciate how open you guys are with the changes you have to make to keep going

Not a lot to say, you guys are handling this one the best possible way. Keep pushing!

Doug, “asks about the forklift guy’s capabilities right after mentioning layoffs” Everyone else, “I trust him”, “best driver I know”, “almost hit me one… key word almost”

Another cost saving measure for you- if your company is paying for any of your items or parts to be shipped in fancy printed shipping boxes, drop it. Those boxes all end up in recycling or garbage, don't pay to dress up garbage. The box/packaging goes away, the product remains.

I admire Wormwood for showing all aspects of the business. This is a hard but necessary side of it. I hope that you all can navigate these waters well and come out stronger on the other side.

Imagine being subscribed to Wyrmwood on RU-vid, seeing this episode, and then you get fucking canned tomorrow lol.

I have never heard a depressing "Your going to get a raise" speech until now.

Do I need a raise? YEAH! The company I work for doesn't know if we are getting raises this year and we didn't get any last year. I used to be sitting pretty and had a good paying job for my area. Now rent has gone so high that while making top dollar that I can't afford rent. The cost of living in Colorado shift from roughly $42k to $65k per person. I could go on a Doug sized rant on this. I just wanna make enough to have my own place, pay my bills, and occasional back a Wyrmwood Kickstarter without wondering if I'm going to eat for a month to afford it.

I really love understanding the why behind hard decisions that you have to make to essentially stay alive in hard times. I wish more companies of all sizes did it in a more digestible format like this. Good work Doug and team.

Got a nice , very much appreciated raise. I'm a kickass worker. The owners , Christaldi and all of management our awesome. Best company I've ever worked for & I'm proud to be a Wyrmwood employee. Doug & Ian work just as hard as any employee in the company. Proud to work for these guys

One thing I would bring up, is the question of how individuals have performed over time. If you have a craftsperson whose last review was just ok or comparatively not great, but they have 3 years of stellar reviews before that, I would want to consider that against someone who has been there for a comparable amount of time but has only ever had ok reviews. Recent performance matters, but so does overall performance. As for the question, yes I absolutely need a raise. I'm just shy of 2 months from my 5 year anniversary with my company, and up until a couple months ago I was making the exact same as a new hire. The base rate for my position went up higher than what I was making at the time in late 2020/early 2021 but we've only just gotten adjustments for staff who have been with the company for years. And yet, I am still just surviving rather than actually living. I am, at all times, one crisis away from being flat broke. It fucking sucks.

We all got our yearly "raise" which still has me making less then last year. 🙄

Definitely focus on the good employees. I left my previous job around October last year and doubled my salary.

That episode was missing a spreadsheet. It’s nice to have the conversations around the table, but PLEASE tell me someone is actually tracking the costs, bottom line, and everything else so that Doug’s 10% price increase isn’t just a number pulled out of the air but has some real data behind it. Based on the rest of the video it’s clear that Doug knows his stuff, but that’s A LOT to keep in just his head (especially with fast forklifts driving around that head).

Honestly I am scared of our economic reliance on China. They have so cheap of products that everyone goes to them for stuff. If the US were to go to war with china or more likely we ally with someone at war with china or china's ally then prices could easily double if we can no longer get stuff from china.

The other way is to lead cost reduction initiatives inside. Are there areas the process can be more efficient? Different ways of doing things? Slight redesigns that lead to less processing times ( VAVE). There is always ways to improve the process. Cut waste? more products out of scrap? etc

I'm a business leader at the equivalent of a "druid" and I agree 100% with Doug's decision making process. It's not fun, but it's necessary to continue to drive forward and maintain profits to stay in business. Sometimes it's hard, but you gotta raise prices, cut cost, and separate the highest performers from the lowest, and even let some go to keep the best.

Lost it at "Did someone say fuck," found myself applauding at the 3:31 transition. Top form, media team.

Where i work (big box) they gave us all a 4% raise...so we are only taking a 4% cut in pay! Yeah!

Nightmare to be a Druid and get the hint "We're probably gonna ask you to put up your weakest team member for the firing squad" 😳

I'd rather pay some more than get shit from china. That's a tough one tho

Lol doug is the annoying manager who asks really annoying questions that he knows the answer too and the employee obviously doesn't. Very annoying.

The highest we got was $3.999/gal locally. We're not in 'Tax'achusett.

Jason is correct about wage compression, but it's worth noting that sometimes that compression can be a good thing. Compression helps workers feel more equal, while expansion helps them feel more valued. Both are important to a healthy company. Use static increases every once in a while (5ish years isn't bad) when you need to boost your bottom end workers, or when you need to increase starting pay for entry level positions to draw in adequate talent. Use dynamic raises (percentages) all other times to help re-establish wage expansion and properly compensate top end workers. A nice way to take the "edge" off static raises is to incorporate a one time dynamic bonus along with it. For example, say you want to raise entry position pay so you can compete in acquiring talent. You have X amount of money to do this in your budget. You could raise all positions by $0.75 with that money, or you could raise them by $.50 and give everyone (maybe with at least 1 year at the company) an additional one time 1.5% bonus based on their annual compensation. This lets you accomplish your goal of raising your base pay, but those who have been there longer such that $.50 isn't as big a percentage still end up getting a bigger lump sum payout. Plus, since it was a one time payout it is a static amount on your budget that doesn't scale into future fiscal years.

0:29 that gracie triangle Respect

love your products and your transparency. wyrmwood strong!

All the best kickstarters have 2 rounds of layoffs.

"Any questions?" Cut to every Druid realizing they already know the person(s) on their team who is about to get canned.

The biggest thing I've gathered from this episode is that the war in ukraine profits the chinese manufacturing industry out of which the west was just starting to pull out of...the fact that our sanctions might be financing a potential russian ally which also happens to be the most probable next overbearing superpower of the world is worrying to me 🤔

Cool product idea. 1 inch and 2 inch NPC/Character discs. Laminate two or three layers of different tone woods, dremel down designs for like Goblin 1, 2, 3, 4, ect. Double sided for healthy and bloodied. Something inexpensive probably that folks can go big if they want. Only mention cause its a hassle to carry a case of minis around to the game store, friends houses, and conventions.

hahahaaa, the end question: "Do you need a raise?" Nah fam, I need a job lol

Great new transitions in this video!

Props to the editor really good job

It is an unfortunate situation to be in but one that has to be explored and handled. I think you guys are handling it in the best way possible. Investing in ways to streamline work and having a serious talk with how best to move forward.

I certainly agree that price increase makes sense, but I wonder if there would ever be a conversation of price decrease if the supply prices came back down

Yes. Inventory has skyrocketed in our warehouse as shipping containers have come in from over seas. We have minimal staff. Please more money.

Man, Seeing wyrmwood vlogs is so damn refreshing. If i could id love to get some products from you, but only thing i can do is to support you on vlogs and wait till greener days haha. keep up the god like work tho!

Same production amount with less workers. I can't see how that would backfire immediately when someone decides to quit now that one person does a larger percentage of work.

It surely is rough out there. Good workers are hard to come by, and should be rewarded properly, and paid to a livable standard--not just a surviving one. You guys do right by your people.

The question is, can a smaller workforce still put out the same amount of necessary work? If you lay off 10 people who are underperforming, and give that money to the other works, will that suddenly boost their productivity to make up for the loss in production staff?

Y'all can raise prices but customer ability to buy what you make isn't necessarily also going up. Tough position to be in.

Most Trucks like that, can have a limiter installed or is already installed but just needs to be set. Just in case you want to up your safety.

Wyrmwood dominoes! I know jenga got thrown out there at some point but there's definitely no copyright type issues with a game as old as dominoes. Honestly any "classic" game like checkers could work too but dominoes would be SO easy to CNC out of scraps

Of course it is about raising prices. There goes the spiral..... And any chance I can buy anything from you because prices are always raised first.

Great hand slap transition. Keep up the great work, editor!

Darn... I knew I should have been in the first kickstarter of MGT. Now I am going to have to spend an extra 500 dollars on what I was wanting.

My company does raises all wrong. They give the bottom 10% of employees a 2% raise and the top 10% a 3% raise. So what happens is after a couple of years the top talent moves on and we spend thousands upon thousands finding and training new talent that would have stayed if they had gotten a 6 or 8% raise.

Yeah.... fire workers and expect more from the ones that are left for the cost of inflation? Sounds pretty sus. Like, they're effectively not getting a raise and have to do more. Makes no sense. Instead tighten waste costs, develop a product using it, sell it bulk, or something.

I need a raise... but that issue has been there for the last 2 yrs

Aren't you in need of labor though given MGT? If there are genuinely bad performers, maybe you should have let them go previously, but letting go of trained staff because inflation seems like one of those dumb short term decisions corporations make. Are you going to have to train up new staff? When? How much will that cost? How long will it take until you have higher production from that new staff member vs old, and what were your costs in getting there? What is Wyrmwood's current profitability now that MGT is mostly ironed out? Do you actually need to lay people off? Or are you just using the present situation as an excuse? These are the questions I have. I see a lot of shitty behavior from companies, and just because I'm inclined to give Wyrmwood the benefit of the doubt due to my history with them, I'm not going to assume that. You might not be a huge corporation, but I've often seen unfeeling reactions from Doug to things in the past, so no assumptions here. If I felt you were laying people off you didn't need to, I would immediately stop buying Wyrmwood products. Just FYI.

DOUG please read this! If you need a supplier of plywood check Boise Cascade. I use to work for them. While they mostly supply lumber and commercial prefabricated stuff. They also do A SHIT TON of plywood. I would know. I worked in AP and did all the billing for the resin they ordered to make the fucking stuff. Try sourcing them!

And realize that it is possible price increases in raw materials supplies might actually result in a certain amount of businesses no longer being able to be profitable.

I work for a very larger plastic factory in America. The upside to to a smaller company like wrymwood is that the owners see the lowest level worker on a daily basis. Where in my situation the drop out rate is so high and we cant keep people that are worth thier time is because upper management is absent. Ive have been trying to get a newer position with a higher pay for 6 months with my supervisor and head torch all wanting me to get the job. But it would be cheaper for my company yo hire someone off the street.

It's realistic but always sad to think about people losing their job. Hopefully anyone effected by this gets on their feet ok

Its like watching the Office but they produce stuff i want.

That joke at the end only old people understood it....nice one :D

l thought Doug's coffee was a cup of noodles for way too long. xD

How do you measure weak performers on the floor? Throughput alone?

Love the new transitions

Stock is the oldest online market we have done in the past years, we employed it because of the highest quality services it renders and how successful it is, today we now say cryptocurrency too. I’m just saying that people should develop the habit of investing, it’s really helping in life.

Surprisingly well thought out. If you Up the costs, to deal with Inflation to Company and Employees, you decrease your production, which is balanced by losing the "Weak" producers.

I'm glad I fought so hard last year for a raise I felt I earned because this year across the board the company I work for has put a pause on any raises.

5:05 nice dipper hat !!

I love how 8% inflation is a problem... i dont remember a time alive where my country was below 30%. Good for you to address the issiue early.

So... I take it you guys aren't hiring?

The other day I was looking at your older videos, in one of them you was wondering what to do with your wood cut off cuts and I came up with some ideas. 1-monster/ hero markers to replace minis 2-old school calculator sticks from 1600 called genaille rods 3-d and d props i.e. towers, tavern and castle. I think you will make a beautiful piece

Damn never tuned to a wyrmlife so fast

In the last two years my employer has given no raises, and we have lost all but 5 of our legacy employees on the production floor. (there were over 40) The only reason I'm left is that I am in school for Arch design.

Really? No one mentioned the Mooby's shirt? It's awesome!😊

went through this exactly thing at my consulting firm.

Running a business is HARD. Running it well is HARDER. That's one big reason why so many of them fail. You guys are doing everything right and it's STILL hard because guess what...life is hard sometimes. I was proud when I noticed that you emphasized that it was the hourly people that were getting raises. You're not patting yourselves on the back which many owners do. Good on you.

My union takes care of all that.

It's a hard set of decisions. You could have trimmed down the nice to haves first, but going after the dead wood, so to speak, is better for your productivity though it still will affect your production rates. I like how you treat your employees like family though. The home work packages during the pandemic to keep the team working and earning and now this of rewarding the producers in your company shows a caring atmosphere. It will probably be hard to let some go and assuming some have seen this already, might affect things on the production floor with those worrying if they are above or below the cut. Hopefully you have advanced quickly on this between when you filmed this episode and and when you aired it. Good luck in this. This is the part I hated about management.

Based Doug, Pay your employees well, if you can't, have less employees

Pretty soon, Wyrmwood is gonna offer shares of bulk CSA in lieu of cash. (Possibly a good thing). Also, my response to "Do you need a raise" is I work at a grocery store; we get paid shit.

Everything everywhere costs more unfortunately. Personally it's times like these I'm being really careful about what I buy and when I buy it. It's not impossible to get the stuff you want, but looking out for specials or deals is definitely the way to go. Also: First 😁

Josh 3.5E got drip, boi

A raise? I need to start getting paid in general. I've been out of the workforce for too long now, getting back in is going to be hell.

"Cut the players that are not well aligned with us" -- This is some dangerous language. Be careful here, since this can cause lawsuits. Best strategy: Bi-yearly performance reviews driven by self assestment. It provides accelerated growth, evidence of performance, and allows you to put workers on a performance improvement plan so you spend less cost on hiring and have ample evidence in case of a lawsuit.