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Welcome to week 51 of 2019 everybody, and to episode #169 of Warehouse and Operations as a Career and I’m Marty T Hawkins. Next week we’ll find ourselves wrapped up in the Holidays and Christmas. I know it’s pretty much a regular work week for a lot of us, well I guess there’s some time off of course, but for example I know of several distribution centers that the order selectors will be off on Tuesday night as delivery trucks won’t roll out on Christmas day and we’ll work Wednesday night, Christmas night, so routes can be loaded and roll out Thursday morning. Some production facilities are even off or closed from Tuesday through Friday, and I know one that won’t be gearing back up until Saturday morning at 1st shift. I had a guy ask why did he have to work Wednesday night, it was a holiday! Think about it, most industries will be working, not a full day maybe but, fast food places, shopping centers, call centers, retail, distribution, entertainment, restaurants, and most service places will be working at least half a day! Its not really that odd. And transportation, those trucks are still moving freight across the country! Many of our independent drivers never really get a day off!
I heard a few recruiters stating this week that it was hard to set interviews between thanksgiving and Christmas, people wanted to wait until after the holidays to start work? I started my first real career job on Nov 22 with a company and stayed there for 26 years. I figure if a person is responding to an ad they are wanting to work. There’s usually 5 or 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and the new year, that’s a long time to go without a payday. We definitely need to honor the season for what it is, and respect it of course, and its great getting the family together, those times are important, we need them. But jobs are important for us too, we know all year long we’re going to be scheduled on those holiday nights. It’s easy to set our holiday gatherings around our schedules. I worked nights, as an order selector for 6 years and never missed out on a holiday event. I didn’t like it but that was the job I had. I always felt worse for the fast food and convenience store workers that had to work during the day on holidays! My point being our jobs take care of our families every week, don’t get frustrated over a day or night worked, you can make it work! I know one guy that got upset and quit his job because his brother was coming into town on a Saturday, his normal day off but the boss told him he’d need him that week. He got all upset, threw a fit that Thursday and quit his job because he wanted to spend all day Saturday with his brother. As it turned out his brother got hung up and didn’t make it to town. No play day with his brother & no job on Monday. I have a hundred stories like that. Let’s work out what we can and work it around our jobs, or that’s my thought process.
Well I strayed way off subject that time but I do want to talk about week 51 or the closing of the year for a few minutes today. If we’re in the production world we’re probably going through an inventory about now. Whither your facility utilizes a cycle count program, meaning a program where we have cycle counters counting items every day, rotating through the sku’s or slots and the aisles on some type of a schedule where every item is actually counted like monthly or quarterly so as to always know exactly what’s in the building or a normal inventory where everything is closed, no inbound or outbound and no invoicing for an entire day or weekend, anybody enjoy that kind of inventory? I used to dread being paired with a salesman or a merchandiser to hit the aisles to count product. Never met one that could read a ti and hi or even verify an item number. Inventories aren’t important to us as warehousemen, but they are important to our companies. A wealth of information comes from a true inventory. Asset figures, tax information, and real dollars, gains and losses are verified through the inventory process. And in our distribution worlds now can be our busiest times. If we supply the retail environments, we’ll need to keep those orders going out and keep those shelves stocked. Even food distribution facilities, usually people quit eating out as much before the holidays but all those shoppers will hit the restaurants when their out shopping so things can really pick up for us during the last three weeks. And oh my gosh, delivery drivers, December is the worst month of all. And not just for the parcel and package drivers, any delivery driver. Think about all the stressed-out individuals their dealing with all day long! Something as simple as a truck damage or mispick is going to set off the customer. And it’s probably not really us there upset with to begin with! The over the road drivers may just have it worse than anyone in the supply chain. They’ve taken possession of a load, been told they have a confirmed appointment time, maybe even a load to pick up for the return ride home only to find they can’t get back in time to make their holiday plans.
The end of year for our company may be budget time too. We all hate it when our bosses are consumed with the numbers! For us we’re looking for increases and they may have to be looking at cutting expenses. Yep, all this is going on and we throw in the most important holiday of all right in here at the end!
I don’t mean to sound all hum bug about this time of the year. We want out children, spouses and family members to have the greatest year ever, and there is nothing more than our family. I guess my real point is we can control all this. We can plan for it and we can be ready for it. Think how great I’d be if we were the one smiling all the way through it. Wouldn’t bother us at all. I’d like to hope we’ve all learned this year that by planning out our goals we will control how we’re feeling and doing by week 51.
Well I strayed way off topic that time, but what I was wanting to bring up was some outstanding growth I’ve seen and heard about the last couple of months. There’s been so many people enter warehousing as general labor and their already operating equipment and moved thru a position or two. I’ve heard from, I don’t know, I bet 20 individuals that are blowing up their numbers as order selectors. And unloaders, I’ve seen so many men and women hit their stride and really making good money this year. My greatest story would have to be 6 people I know that had never been in a warehouse before and had the opportunity to be taught order selecting. They’ve all hit their productivity and achieved a career they’d never dreamed possible. You’ve gotta love Operations right? There’s something for everyone, we can honestly earn what we want too! Yep its work, hard work, but it’s out there and ripe for the taking!
And our industry just keeps growing. No matter what region you’re in, commercial warehouse space is popping up everywhere. A quick internet search will tell you that there are over 400k warehouses in the U.S. By the end of 2019 its estimated that they’ll be over 780 million square feet of space that will have hit the market, with 225 million square feet being planned or built right now. And a lot of that space, some estimate over 50% of it is being built without tenants or signed leases even. People are betting on all this growth. We’ve made some great career choices people. If we’ve planned out a strategy, our careers, the jobs and opportunities are going to be out there for a long time to come.
The supply chain. We’ve learned this year how the field of Logistics has grown. Technology is the future. Not robots, their cool and all but men and women, learning the new technologies, moving freight globally, more efficient and quicker is where it’s at. As we just mentioned all that storage space is going to need workers, supervisors, managers, directors and vice presidents. I’ve never seen the opportunities out there like they are now. If we’re just wanting jobs, they’re out there and if we’re wanting advancement and growth its available and ready for us.
Well, I kind of talked about what I wanted to today but I didn’t mention half of the things I had in my notes. I get excited about operations. I’d encourage you to search the web for an hour this week. Just look up warehousing, you’ll find so much positive information out there and it’ll be interesting, I guarantee it! If you run across something you’d like to share send it over to me, email host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com or use that little @whseandops on Facebook or Twitter, there’s always people there that’d love to join in on your conversation.
Until next week, the last week of the year, remember as great as operations is, our jobs can be dangerous. Be safe first! And always go home to the family waiting on us!