Catch the Quit a Month Before It Happens

What it does

One row every time you check a man. You write his name, the month, and his five gut scores (1–5) on the work, whether the pay feels fair, the crew, home, and how he feels treated. The sheet averages the five for you and, in the Flag column, turns red on the two things that mean a good hand is on his way out: any score of 2 or under this month, and any man whose average has fallen two months straight. The box on the right keeps a running count — check-ins logged, low-score months, falling months, and how many fixes you still haven't followed up on. Rows 5–7 (yellow) are one man across three months, filled in as an example; the orange banner across the top of the sheet says the same thing — delete all three rows before you log your first real check-in.

How to use it

1. Run the check at the truck first (the play), then write it down here — the sheet is the record, not the meeting.
2. Fill one row per man per month: Man, Month, and the five scores from the dropdowns (Work, Pay fair, Crew, Home, Treated).
3. Pick the Lowest area from the dropdown (the one you dug into) and write the one thing you're fixing in What we're fixing.
4. Next month, when you follow up, set Followed up? on last month's row to Yes.
5. Keep the sheet sorted by man, then by month (see the judgment call below — the falling flag depends on it). If you forget, a red ⚠ SORT BY MAN, THEN MONTH — the falling flag needs it note lights up under the box until you fix the order. Read the box on the right and chase every red Flag first.

The dropdowns reject anything that isn't on their list — a typo in a score or in Followed up? would drop the row out of the counts, so the sheet stops you instead of quietly miscounting.

Columns

Formulas (so you can rebuild it by hand)

• Avg (H5, fill down): =IF(COUNT($C5:$G5)=5,AVERAGE($C5:$G5),"")
• Flag (L5, fill down): =IF($A5="","",IF(AND($A5=$A4,$A4=$A3,$H5<$H4,$H4<$H3),IF(AND(COUNT($C5:$G5)=5,MIN($C5:$G5)<=2),"LOW + FALLING","FALLING"),IF(AND(COUNT($C5:$G5)=5,MIN($C5:$G5)<=2),"LOW SCORE","")))
• Check-ins logged (box): =COUNTA($A$5:$A$24)
• Low-score months (box): =COUNTIF($L$5:$L$24,"LOW*")
• Falling months (box): =COUNTIF($L$5:$L$24,"*FALLING*") — it counts flagged rows, so a man sliding four months straight shows up as more than one; that's why the label says months, not men.
• Not yet followed up (box): =COUNTIF($K$5:$K$24,"No")
• Sort guard — a hidden helper column (Q) marks any row that breaks man-then-month order, and the note by the box (N9) lights up whenever any row is marked:
  • Q5 =0; Q6 and down: =IF($A6="",0,IF(AND($A6<>$A5,COUNTIF($A$5:A5,$A6)>0),1,IF(AND($A6=$A5,$B6<=$B5),1,0)))
  • N9 (the warning): =IF(SUM($Q$5:$Q$24)>0,"⚠ SORT BY MAN, THEN MONTH — the falling flag needs it","")

Only IF, AND, SUM, COUNT, COUNTA, COUNTIF, MIN, and AVERAGE are used — no Excel-365-only functions — so it opens and computes in old Excel, Numbers, and LibreOffice.

Notes / judgment calls

• "Falling two months straight" needs the rows sorted by man, then month — this is the one rule that makes the flag work. The FALLING part of the flag compares a row's average to the two rows directly above it, and only fires when all three rows are the same man ($A5=$A4=$A3). That's the honest, dependency-free way to spot a two-month slide in a flat log without fancy new-Excel functions. It means: keep each man's months together and in date order. If you scramble the rows, the low-score flag still works fine — only the falling flag needs the order. Re-sort by Man then Month whenever you add a batch of rows. The sheet now catches this for you: a hidden check watches for rows that aren't grouped and in date order by man, and lights up a red ⚠ SORT BY MAN, THEN MONTH note by the box until you re-sort. The falling flag itself is unchanged — the note just stops a scrambled sheet from quietly hiding a slide.
• Three flag states. LOW SCORE = a 2 or under this month (act now). FALLING = his average dropped two months running even if no single score is low yet (the quiet drifter — the dangerous one). LOW + FALLING = both, which is a man with one foot out the door. The example's June row shows LOW + FALLING on purpose so you can see both fire at once.
• The average is a thermometer, not a grade. Don't wave it at the man. A 3.4 that's been sliding matters more than a steady 3.0. The number is there to make the drift visible to you, early.
• The fix lives in two places on purpose. Here, as your record of what you promised; and on the promise list (Module 2, Play 1), where it gets read out loud every week so it actually gets done. A fix that only lives here won't get chased.
• The live block is rows 5 through 24. Every count, flag and dropdown stops at row 24, so a row typed below the last one is invisible to the sheet — it looks fine and counts for nothing. To add room, insert new rows INSIDE the block (right-click a row in the middle → Insert), which stretches the ranges for you. If you do go past row 24, widen $A$5:$A$24, $L$5:$L$24, $K$5:$K$24 and $Q$5:$Q$24 in the box formulas to match, and fill the Avg, Flag and helper formulas down. A six-man shop fills 20 rows in about three months, so plan on doing this once a season.
• The sheet ships with the numbers already saved in it, so a phone preview shows real figures; they recalculate as soon as you type in it.