I have always worked at places where I had to see the job through from start to finish, meaning not only do the studio or location work, but the film processing, printing, finishing, and the business end--paperwork, files etc. The printing I do for my job now is more cyclical-- times of shooting for exhibits & publications, and then having maybe a month or less to produce the prints & mount etc. It's like batch processing really--production periods.
We have three 4x5 enlarging stations, in kreonite cabinets (self contained), one with a drop leaf. we do up to 20x24, but occasionally have gone larger, although it's a real pain. our machine--ilford 2150--runs in a minute dry to dry. there's a large sink as well, used mainly for sulfide toning since it has a custom slot hood attached to it for this purpose, but we also tray process on dire occasions when the machine is down. Last time I did this at work, I made about 350 5x7s in a day (off one neg). I did an exhibit last year, where I had to selenium tone the final prints. I made two sets of 16x20s, from 51 negatives. I averaged one set an hour--it took me about 25 minutes to do each print. I spent most of this time, washing prints and rocking trays.
I used to make more large runs off single negs, but we don't send that many prints out anymore thanks to digital & FTP sites. Back when I did this--I would sometimes use two enlargers, if I had multiple negs. I can average about 250 prints in an hour, off a single neg. I could do about 5 sets of these 250 sheet or so runs in an average day, without screwing up. I mainly just briskly moved from the enlarger to the machine--like a machine--shoveling prints into it. every 50 or so prints, I might stop & check them out quickly, and then get back to it. I recently printed about 250 ilford postcards off 5 negs this way, and it took maybe two hours at most.
I have a work plan that sets in the number of redos (shooting, printing etc) I get in a work period. For printing I get no more than two a month, using four sheets of paper max per negative. I can't think of the last time I had a print sent back--This is just something to track job performance, but it also helps with newer employees in trying to keep the paper usage from getting out of hand. You have to learn when enough is enough, and so you develop a good eye as a printer, knowing that the subtle fixes you might make to a negative--while may seem very important to you--are often overlooked by 99% of the people. There are also negatives that are really lousy, and no amount of salvage work will save, so you learn to make a good print off these--in that it can reproduce with good tones--but not a masterpiece, because frankly the negatives are not capable of that.
I quit obsessing a long time ago about speed and the number I could get done in a day. My deadlines are often that I have to have everything done by a certain date/time--so I do what I have to do to meet that. That said...I worked on a short turnaround exhibit last month. I had to make about 2 8x10s each of 200+ negs, and then after an edit---I had to make the exhibit prints, again 2 sets each (one extra)--ranging from small to 20x24s. Then I had to mount them. On top of that, I had copywork on 4x5, photos & artifacts (textual), as part of those work prints. In a one month period, I shot & processed almost 350 sheets of film, made those work prints in four days (used 3/4 case of paper as well), and then made almost 100 final prints--plus mounted them. All the while, the other guy I work with was doing the same thing--yet with color, and working with outside labs for murals. I wound up putting in almost 40 hours of OT on top of the 40/week I regularly work.
I think if I can break it down though-- I can do about 5 minutes per neg. As something like a "commercial" grade would be--good tones for repro, modest dodging & burning. anything more takes longer--uses more materials etc. The exhibit prints take me a little longer, but in the end, I try to keep the paper usage to within my limits, and I'll just put in however much time I have to, to get it done. I don't make garbage in/garbage out prints--I treat 'em all the same, whenever possible.
I don't know if this really helps--my advice would be to try to streamline your technique--set up some limits for how much time and how many materials you'll consume per job, and know when to call it done & move on. If you can stick with it--and approach each job or assignment as a learning experience or a way to hone your chops, instead of a boring, rote task--then sooner or later, you'll find your stride.
my opinions only/not my employers.
