Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:35 — 10.1MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Welcome back, Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career! Everyone has had a Productive, Prosperous and Safe week, I hope? It’s been a busy one here but busy is a good thing, means there’s plenty to do and get done right? This week I’ve had a couple of companies preparing for or wrapping up a move recently, one has already relocated to their new building and another one is in the planning stage, I’m anticipating them to gear up sometime over the over the next 60 days or so. There’s a whole lot of work, a lot of planning that goes into such a project. Besides all the logistics required to move all the inventory without affecting your customers and your receiving and shipping departments, you’ll need to write or rewrite almost all of the procedures and processes. The evacuation routes, paperwork flow, points of contact, Safety procedures, all the hazard analysis sheets, job descriptions, SOP’s or the standard operating procedures for each position. Oh, and we may need to look at our GMP’s or general maintenance practices and our Sanitation policies. I pulled out an old move chart I used once, there were 214 lines to it and after we started the move we probably identified another 214 things we should have thought of. Also this week, I worked a little on an upcoming class for front line supervisors. We’ve talked about almost of the responsibilities we’ll run across as a supervisor before, we’ve at least hit on the high points I guess. I was thinking about the move list both of these companies we’re building and how many of those tasks landed in our laps as supervisors and even associates or employees. Here at WAOC we’re all about getting noticed by our management teams, that’s really the only short cut to our learning and planning out our careers that I’ve came across. They need to know what our plans are. Their I go, that’s a whole other show, anyway I’m asked about every other week how do I get promoted or how do I change departments and Marty why are you always talking about getting promoted? With my focus this week being on facility moves and front-line supervision I thought why not get a few of those questions out of the way. I mean with all the open positions a move or building recalibration can open up and the possibility of a few more Lead and Supervision jobs created, I think it’d be worth looking into those thoughts!
OK, lets look at that last question first, it’s the easiest one to answer. It generally comes across something like, Marty, why are you always saying we need to chase and/or prepare ourselves for a promotion? Let me share my feelings about that. I feel that if you love your job and it provides you the income you need to enjoy life and take care of your families you’re doing exactly what you should be doing. And when your happy with your work you’re probably going to be the best in the building at it. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing what we’re doing, and we should keep doing it. But, if your goal is something else, being an equipment operator or a machine operator, maybe having a title, which I hope isn’t anyone’s dream, or to make more money and we’re just using our present position as a stepping stone to somewhere else then we’re going to have to use promotions or changing departments to get there.
Promotions, when someone comes to me asking about a promotion, I always ask them why. Many times, there’s no answer, or the answer is something like well doesn’t it pay more? If we can’t answer the question of why do we want it, we may not be ready for it. We may not know what the job entails and the responsibility that is going to come along with it! Another thing we’ll need to understand it where can it take us? Sometimes jumping into a new situation, especially if we don’t understand it can cost us dearly. We could get stuck in a dead end position or we could end up losing our job because we had no idea what skills we’d need and we hadn’t prepared or educated ourselves to them!
So when I’m asked “how do I get promoted” I always ask the individual promoted to what? More times than not that’s answered with “I don’t know but I want to make more money”. Isn’t that kind of like just taking a job without doing any research on our prospective employer? And I’ll fill you in on a little secret. Whatever the task is, without educating ourselves too it, and not knowing how to perform it, or having the contacts or mentors to make it happen, it’ll cost us more than we would have made, probably even losing our job. That sounded a little harsh, what I mean is, lets say I’m a barrel maker, my job is to cut the slats that form the barrel, and I’ve heard that the banding department makes $2/hr more than the slat department. So, I go tell my manager that I want to move over to the banding department. Only thing is I know nothing about the banding department. I don’t know that the turnover is really high over there. They work around hot steel, forming the barrel rings, bending, and shaping them. I don’t know anyone that works over there either. It’s a no access area because of the safety training needed to work in the area. Well my boss jumps at the opportunity to promote me. He sees an employee that comes to work every day, I’m always on-time, a can do attitude so guess what? I’ve just been promoted. Promoted into a position I may not like at all, but guess what? I’m making $2/hr more for the 3 weeks I’m working over there. Now that’s a bit of an extreme example but I think you get the idea.
I’m always talking about planning and goals. I think we have to use the same philosophy when we’re talking about promotions! Let’s take our example a little farther. Let’s say I could have made a lateral move, or at the same pay rate move to the drying department from my slat job. They use powered equipment over there and I could get on the job training, training that would get me a $2/hr raise and the opportunity for further advancement to the shipping department! Since we’re just exploring the possibilities lets add that working in the banding department can afford us an opportunity to become a welder, maybe we can even advance to working with the bending machines. That’d sound pretty interesting!
The morale to the story is we answered the question of “why do you want a promotion” by saying I want to make more money”!
We should have known something about the high turnover, the heat, and all the safety training and the opportunities to learn a great trade after putting in our time. Then there’s the other path, moving into the drying department, becoming an equipment operator and on to the positions that come after that!
I always encourage an associate to come back to me in a week and let’s discuss the position he or she wants to move too. I try and leave them with a few things to think about:
Review that positions Job Description
Study the SOP sheet for the job
Talk to someone performing the task
Get to know some if not all of the crew, we could find that it wouldn’t be a fit even if we got the job.
Ask around, where can this task take us or what opportunities will this department open up for me?
What is the management like, is the training adequate?
Ask a few of them if they like their job.
See who they hang out with? Would they all fit into your lifestyle?
Take note that I never bring up money to them. Of course, money is important, that’s what pays the bills but as I’ve said, we’re into this work thing for the long haul. I hope we’re all planning out our career path. Not thinking about our wages we’re earning tomorrow but planning on the wage we want to be earning 2 years, 5 years, 15 years, shoot even 25 years from now. That needs to be our goal. Honestly $2/hr isn’t going to change anything if that’s all we’re going to experience for the next few years right?
That reminds me of our savings plan we learned in January? The episode was New Year – Plans – Savings, I think it was the January 2nd show. Anyway, it was a savings plan based on the weeks in a year. Another words week one we put a dollar into savings, week 2 we’d put $2 in savings, week 11 we’d put $11 dollars into savings an so on up to week 52 or $52. Several people said they we’re going to run it backwards, or putting $52 in savings on week 1, $51 dollars on week 2, $50 on week 3, all the way to the end of the year so during the holidays the dollar amounts would be decreasing! So we’re in week 25 this week. Our savings should reflect either $325 if we’re saving forward or $1000 running it backwards. That’s planning, how is everyone doing with there savings plan? I hope we’re all right on the mark!
I know I’m always talking about planning and goals, probably gets old sometimes. But, for most of us anyway, now is the time we can plan for that retirement or 20 years down the road. Our industry can afford us a great living, jobs that we can enjoy and provide for our families with. But, and this goes for any profession or industry, we need to have an exit strategy and that plan needs to be our own savings. Whither that be investments, stocks, 401k’s etc, it’s our responsibility to take care of ourselves and our families, right? None of us want to be worrying about next week’s pay check on our 70th birthday. Plan now and play later is my philosophy!
Well, I jumped plum off the boat with today’s topic, but I hope I answered the promotion question. I’ve always found that when we’re looking for a new job it’s important to research the job we want and apply at the company that can meet all our needs, and I think the same goes for the next step or promotion or changing departments. I think we need to know, and understand, what the job is and where it can take us! Until next week I’d like us all to not only think safe and work safe but let’s help someone else be safe too!