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I’m Marty T Hawkins here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career! I hope it’s starting to cool off a little now in whatever part of the country you’re in. I’m in Texas, it’s still more than lukewarm here but we’ll be on the cooler side of that 100 degree mark hopefully starting next week! Another thing that seemed to run hot the last couple of weeks were frustration levels, and I hate this word, but attitudes. I can’t remember a time span of just a few weeks that I heard about so many individuals quitting their jobs, walking out during their shift or just not even showing up on their first day. To be honest it’s a little mind boggling. I can certainly understand, we’re going to get frustrated with people, certainly our bosses sometimes and all the rules that can be imposed on us in the workplace can seem, or really be quite annoying at times. But, it’s just a job, safety Joe always tells us it’s called work instead of fun because it is a job! I thought this week I’d share a few of the stories I’d heard about, maybe you can share a few of your experiences with us, or maybe you can shed some light on these situations. I’d love hearing from you, send us something to host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com and I’ll share it with the group! Maybe we’ll have a conversation about it on the old Facebook and Twitter feeds too, just use that little @whseandops on either and let’s talk about it!
So first up, and I’ve heard about this happening 3 times in 3 different states just last week. Walking off the job or leaving during the shift, like in the middle of our jobs that day. By the time I’d heard of the third one last week I was thinking how frustrated would I have to get to walk out on someone? The first one I heard about was an unloader or a lumper. He was a new employee; I think he’d been working for only something like 2 weeks. He went to lunch and just never came back. Didn’t answer the phone when called and hadn’t replied to an exit interview he’d been sent. His supervisor stated he was unaware of any problems while he was there and that he appeared to be catching on well and overall seemed to be a pretty good employee. With him using that word appear, I kind of wondered if he was wanting to tell me a little more of a story but I simply went with it as stated. Another one, the associate simply had a choice to make. I guess he had been invited to a concert by some friends the night before. He went to his supervisor, towards the beginning of his shift and asked if he could leave for the day, that he’d been invited to a concert that night and he wanted to go. His supervisor pointed out that it was only 6:30 a.m., he could work with him a bit though and he’d make sure he could get off by 1 or 2 p.m. but he needed him for the first part of the day. Now, the employee felt like it wasn’t necessary for him to be there, went to the time clock and punched out. He didn’t finish what he was doing, didn’t mention he was leaving to anyone, just left. Now this next one I hear about all the time, or some variation of it. Seriously, and I mean almost every week. So a new employee, not new to the industry or task but new to the company and shift, came in and was told that it was going to be a light night and him being the newest team member they needed him to go over and help separate and pack up or re-box some split items. A split item is like, oh, what’s a good example, let’s say spices. A case of dried thyme may come 6-1lb containers. So, he would be taking all six out of the case, making individual pieces or items to be sold. Oh, here’s another example, serving spoons. serving spoons comes 24 to a case, very few people are going to order 24 serving spoons at a time so we’d open us all the received cases and dump the spoons into a large tote or box so they could be sold one at a time. Well, he didn’t feel like it was fair that he had to go to the split area again, he wanted to go do the job he’d been hired to do. I think that last sentence pretty much set the stage for the next 5-minute conversation. I’m not sure how the supervisor handled it, I’d hope they just calmly explained the need really. It ended with the new associate, after 2 weeks on the job, deciding that this wasn’t the place for them and leaving before the shift even got started. The supervisor told him he understood and wished him the best of luck!
Warehouse work is hard work. It’s stressful. We are going to get frustrated. How we handle that frustration is all on us. Every Op’s position in the warehouse brings with it it’s own set of responsibilities. I mean, we’re not working in the fast food industry anymore or the retail scene like at the malls. Those industries or positions bring very little responsibility to the table, as an associate anyway. Sometimes with those types of jobs we’ll be working on somekind of a flex schedule, really no set shifts or hours, the job doesent require it. And theres always people that our management can call in to cover for us. It’ll probably be much easier for our supervisor to help us get a day off too. With no set shifts his or her scheduling is much easier. And those jobs pay rates reflect that level of responsibility. Remember, we’ve learned that money comes with responsibility and we’re in the bigs now. When we were hired for a warehouse position, I’m certain, or I hope that, the importance of attendance was explained to us and that it’s a major factor in our industry. Warehousing works off of productivity. Distribution and Production in particular are on a 24-hour clock. The first shift has to get wrapped up and out of the way so the 2nd shift can get started. Same goes for the 3rd shifts. Our hours are set, and we’ve accepted them along with the job offer right? I know that things are going to come up, life is important too. And your companies know that we’ll need off from time to time. They know we’ll occasionally have some personal problems. I’m sure they will work with us more often than not. But the product has to be received, put away, selected, loaded and shipped. That product has to be made, manufactured and packed. Productivity determines our headcounts in this business, and the quantity of freight and merchandise determines the productivity needed to achieve the goals for our company’s customers. And that is why warehousing, transportation or operations wages are what they are. Well, all that and that the work is hard, and physical. All that defines responsibility for us!
I’m going to use that word again, here at WAOC we’re always talking about Communication. Ladies and Gentlemen, communicate with your management teams. If your frustrated, communicate it. Now yes, we need to pick the right time to go see our supervisor. There as busy as we are. Go see them at the end of the shift maybe, or ask them for a few minutes of their time when they have a minute. I assure you our company wants to keep us. They’d already have let us go if they didn’t. They’ve invested quite a bit of money in us already, just the on-boarding or hiring has cost them. And think about all the training and our wages. They want, I’ll change that to need us to stay. They want our productivity, they hired us right? Seriously, who have we hurt by walking off the job midshift, or getting mad and not going back in, and not telling anyone what we’re upset about! As for NCNS’ing on the first day? We’ve looked for a job, probably done a phone interview, maybe filled out an on-line application and drove over for a face to face interview and listened to the hiring agent explain everything about the position. We had an opportunity to ask any questions as we’re right in front of them. Yet, and I know it’s not all of us, things can come up, but it happens so often I have to believe we know we do not want this job. We just don’t say it. Their counting on us to show up and we never communicate that were not going to?
Like I said before, we’re in the Big’s now. We’re good at what we can do, we have the experience, I just feel that by communicating we can better ourselves and our companies with our presence. I know so many order selectors as an example that’s worked for all 6 of the National Broadline distributors. A year here, 2 years there etc. Some of them have worked for 2 or 3 of them more than once. Their great at what they do but they got mad about something, quit, and went to work for another one. Over the years they never built up any seniority or advanced within the company. In my experience, better communication, in most cases, any communication would have probably helped us out!
Maybe I can mention another word we love here at WAOC, Planning. I assure you that if you have a Plan, your career plan, and you Communicate your concerns to your boss, well, those two things will insure a very successful career.
Dang, I could go on and on about planning and communicating. I guess I’d like to ask you to think about it the next time you get upset or frustrated. Of course, there’s going to be situations or environments that we’ll need to get out of or away from but let’s try and do it the right way. It’ll always be better for ourselves and our families. Key words for today, Think, Plan & Communicate!
Thanks for checking in with us today, I so look forward to your visit again next week. I really appreciate you supporting WAOC with your time. Till next week let’s all come up with a safety thought each day this week and share it with a friend!