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Thanks for stopping back in with us today, Marty T Hawkins here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career. Today I’d like to share a situation I ran across last week that I think is a relatively new issue in our industry, well, I guess it’s always been an important issue but maybe we just have to take it more seriously now than ever before. That issue is workplace violence, more importantly how even an argument on the floor can stick with us throughout our work careers. Oh, and lets start today on a lighter note real quick, Last weekend I was honored to have the opportunity to attend a Safety Roadeo or I’ve heard then called an Equipment Roadeo too. I myself like to word Safety being in there somewhere! If you ever have the chance to be a participant be sure and take advantage of it and sign up. I’ve attended 60 or 70 of them over the years and can honestly say I’ve enjoyed every one of them and I’ve learned something new every time I’m around the contestants. Their purpose is usually to bring our families to our workplace to meet and fellowship with our peers and show everyone our skills. The one I visited last week in New Mexico was one of the best I’ve seen, not the largest but it was laid out very well and I think everyone had a blast competing and meeting everyone’s families. The Management cooked for everyone and they had some amazing snacks throughout the day for everyone to munch on!
I think the most stressful points at a roadeo are the Safety Testing and the Pre Trip areas. The Safety testing for the Warehouse participants is usually something like 10 to 25 questions on Safety in the warehouse and Equipment usage. The Transportation testing will usually be on State regulations and D.O.T Safety and Laws. A Roadeo usually consist of 3 different events. One event for the Pallet Jack Operators and that one can even be broken down into a Singles category and a Doubles Category. I don’t think I’ve seen a Triple Pallet Jack event yet, that’d take up a lot of dock space wouldn’t it! The 2nd event is for Forklift Operators, and again that event can be broken out into 2 categories, the stand-up types and the Sit-down lifts. And the 3rd event is Transportation. I’ve seen this event broken out to include a Box Truck or straight truck competition and maybe a 28ft tractor trailer event or 36 or 48 ft, I haven’t been to an event where a 53ft unit was utilized, again maybe due to the amount of space that would be required.
The warehouse courses are typically constructed using pallets that are stood on end, yep, a bit surprising to you as all you’ve heard through your training we’re to never stand a pallet on its end but hey, we’re in a controlled environment and they do make the best obstacles for a competition course. There’s hundreds of variations but usually you’ll have a very tight figure eight track, a blind pallet drop and a couple of squeeze turns and a straightaway to make while carrying a load. The forklift event is about the same utilizing the same type of obstacles and challenges. The Driver or transportation events are designed with our day in and day out delivery challenges being tested like tight right hand turns, blind side backing and straight away pulling skills being tested. As a delivery or route driver those are skills that are presented to us every day!
After the Safety Testing each event has a pretty rigorous Pre-Trip test we have to go through. That’s where our maintenance man will disable 3 or 4 of our equipment’s safety or operational components and we have to find them while performing our equipment pre check. These are fun as we typically don’t get to have our check list in hand like we would during our normal shift.
Anyway, at each event we’ll be judged, usually by volunteers by our company’s vendors or 3rd party partners on our skills driving through the courses. Like points being deducted each time we touch a pallet or traffic cone or have to stop and restart, things like that. The typical tie breaker is our times, the time it takes us to run the course. I’ve found it’s best to not worry about our times, it’s better to run the course taking our time, not hitting a barrier or having to stop and reset up a turn. It may take us longer but those are the things that take points from us, if we have a 100 we won’t have to be concerned with our time right, it’s only used to break a tie! You can always spot a 1st time constant, he or she is trying to speed through the course where as a seasoned or repeat constant or titled winner is taking their time and just trying to keep a steady and even flow through the course!
I love seeing the, all in fun of course, little side competitions between the day shift and night shift operators. I’m always asked which shift has the better or more productive operators. I’ve always felt wither you’re an inbound or outbound operator, in the distribution or production worlds or in a freight warehouse an operator is an operator and we can all perform the same tasks. I feel if we take any operator and put them on a generic course such as we just discussed it’ll be a level playing field.
I had the privilege to speak with a couple of warehousemen that had very successful Careers with their company operating the pallet jacks and forklifts. We talked about the changes with equipment over the last 15 years, from single jacks to doubles and triple jacks and our forklifts from 3 or 4 operating levers to a single joystick configuration and how much safer and convenient or easy to use our equipment is now.
Like I said I loved competing in these events back in the day and now I think I get as excited as the constants do when they pull up to the starting line. It’s great to see the best of the best competing with their peers. I highly recommend you sign up if your facility puts on a rodeo and the prizes are usually awesome as well. I generally see a monetary prize for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in each event and drawings throughout the day for things like surround sound systems, big screen t.v.’s, small kitchen appliances, tech equipment like laptop’s and tablets and my personal favorites Gift Cards! Like I said it’s a great time to visit with our peers and their families and let’s face it, it’s great to get to show our skills off a bit right!
And if you’re working with a large national company the first place winners may have the opportunity to travel for a National competition to compete with the winners of their other facilities for a kind of best of the best show down. It’s always a fun trip for our significant other and we’ll get to meet other operators from across the country! Roadeos are another great way to get noticed by our management teams too, what a great way to show our enthusiasm, interest and skills!!
I veered way off subject with that thought but, hey, it’s a good topic too right?
- Anyway, a young gentleman lost his job over an argument that never should have escalated to the point of hands being laid on another employee. In today’s world an argument where words are said that shouldn’t have been said can be tagged a terroristic threat and when hands are laid on another it can be called assault. Not that I disagree at all, we’re living in a world today where everything has to be taken seriously & let’s be honest with ourselves, we should not let things get to that point. Every company I know of encourages us to walk away and report the incident immediately, there’s a zero tolerance policy for these actions. This is where I’m concerned we may not realize how these charges can stick with us for years & impede our ability to get certain positions in the future! In this particular case the gentleman had no kind of record at all. The company and the associate that he allegedly pushed or hit almost pressed charges against him. Today those kinds of charges are not what we want when a background check is ran on us. I found this at https://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/factsheet-workplace-violence.pdf
I’ll add the link in today’s show notes
So what is workplace violence?
Simply put Workplace violence is violence or the threat of violence against workers.
Who is at risk of workplace violence?
Some 2 million American workers are victims of workplace violence each year. Workplace violence can strike anywhere, and no one is immune.
Workers have a right to a safe workplace. The law requires employers to provide their employees with safe and healthful workplaces.
And I found these two definitions at Meriam Webster.com
- Terroristic Threat
- Aterroristic threat is a threat to commit a crime of violence or a threat to cause bodily injury to another person and terrorization as the result of the proscribed conduct
- Assault and Battery
- the crime of threatening a person together with the act of making physical contact with them
Please remember how important to our careers these situations are. Our actions and how we handle ourselves in them can determine the money we can earn. Let’s all take care of our jobs and our careers, letting things get out of hand or handling them wrong could stay with us for 3 to 7 years!
Well that’s enough of all that, I hope you heard something that helps you in your careers today! And if you have a chance to enter a Safety or Equipment Rodeo please do, I guarantee you’ll enjoy it and it very well may help us get noticed by our management teams! Until next week, please Think Safe, Be Safe and lets all be responsible with our Actions!