Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:12 — 9.0MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
I was looking this morning, doesn’t seem like we’ve done 182 episodes now does it? Well, we hope to have 182 more. When we started WAOC 3.5 years ago, I just wanted to talk a little bit about operations, something I’d always done myself, working in the warehouse and transportation fields and how with just a little effort on my end, I was able to advance from within, and into more challenging roles and duties. I’ve enjoyed hearing from so many of you about your own advancements and all the excitement so many of you have for Op’s! If you’re a long-term listener you know how passionate I can get about our jobs. Hey, we’re going to be working for the rest of our lives so we might as well enjoy what we do right? The last few weeks we’ve been talking about advancement and a few of the opportunities out there for us, and I don’t want to get away from that just yet, but it’s been a week of missed chances for so many this week, or I’m hearing so many stories of how a situation could have been handled differently with much better out comes for us as employees, that I thought we’d blend the two topics together maybe!
Let’s start here today. A gentleman was working sanitation for a good-sized distribution company and by all accounts he was doing a great job. He was working for a 3rd party agency, and he’d been with them for about 3 years. The customer had recognized him a couple of times for the good work and dedication he’d showed them over the years, and overall, they thought he was great. Dependable and reliable. He went to his facilities manager and very professionally asked if he could move into another department, something that paid a little more money. No, he was an experienced warehouseman. He had held positions as an unloader or lumper, and he’d done some order selecting at a couple different places before accepting his present position there. The manager acknowledged the good job he was doing but flatly told him that no, he’d need to stay with them in sanitation. Quite deflating to our morale, right? It was at this point he reached out to his company. Remember, he was actually working with an agency, a third party. They were actually who he reported too. He had asked his company’s customer for another job. Now, his company, the 3rd party, actually supplied lumpers and order selectors for this account. Had he asked his boss about moving departments it would have been as simple as transferring him and sending a replacement to fill his sanitation position. I definitely understand our thought process here. When we’re working for a 3rd party, reporting to work at the same location everyday and doing the same job, it is so easy to build relationships with those working around us or with us. Its all to easy to forget that we take directions from our supervisor, even if we’re around other supervisors more. We do not work for that company. He put himself in a position where he couldn’t be moved now. The customer had gone to his actual boss and expressed how good a job this sanitation man was doing and that he didn’t want him moved around at this time. Its that human nature thing we’re always talking about. A job is a job, and we can’t get comfortable with it. We have to treat it as such, follow our chain of command. Its always best to leave the politics to the politicians. We have a supervisor and he or she’s got our backs. More times than not what I see is, when someone goes outside the organizational chart, is failure and we don’t get what we want or deserve. His actual supervisor knows now what his employee would like to do, and he’ll of course try and make something happen. Its going to take a while though. There customer has already stated he doesn’t want to see any changes right now. Some time will pass and it’ll probably all work out for him, or at least I hope so.
And then there was this one. I hated this one. And associate was hired and was given a start day of Friday. Thursday, he went to some training and his orientation. Towards the end, the trainer was going over everyone’s start times and sharing how to get to their assigned departments this gentleman spoke up and said he had spoken with his department head and had gotten permission to start on Tuesday. The trainer called to check with the recruiter who in turn reached out to the department supervisor for clarification. Well, he was busy but another associate said that’d be fine, so the trainer was told to go ahead and set him up for Tuesday. Friday morning the supervisor called the trainer inquiring where his employee was, and he was not being very pleasant about it. As it turns out the new associate wanted to take a long weekend before starting his new job. He’d mislead everyone about having permission to start Tuesday and to make things worse he’d told his new boss that the trainer and recruiter had told him to start Tuesday. It all came unraveled on him and he was dismissed before he ever hit the floor. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve invested a lot of our own time in getting a job. It’ll never turn out good for us to try and dictate out own rules or schedules. We’ve gotten hired, we have a job, its our responsibility to follow direction and keep it. I assure you that our recruiter has 10 others that’ll fill our position.
And then I heard about two of these. NCNS. What is the reason a new hire would just ghost their new employer? Even if an emergency comes up, why would we not pick up the phone and give them a call? We’ve burnt a bridge and rarely, rarely like never, are we going to talk ourselves off that ledge or explain a NCNS well enough to keep our new job. If anyone can explain a NCNS to us, please do so. Just send us an email to host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com. I’ve never met anyone that could explain it!
With me being an old order selector this one I can certainly relate to! A gentleman had been working for a national company, he’d been with them for like 4 years, probably just gotten a little comfortable there and maybe got to thinking he was too good to let go of. He was an above average selector productivity wise, but he had pointed out on his attendance and was dismissed. He was lucky and didn’t have a problem finding a job. He was able to start the following week with a competitor actually. Well during his first week he was already having trouble with his new trainer! He kept bringing up how he used to do things at his old employer. How the slotting should be different. How the WMS system should be changed. He kept telling the trainer how he wanted to do things instead of just doing them the way his new employer wanted him to do them! Its important to remember that our employer is paying us to do a job their way! Now of course we can voice our opinions every once and a while but let’s wait till we’ve been employed for a while, not on our first week!
As we’ve discussed here at WAOC, a job is not guaranteed to us. We have to research, apply and be chosen as an employee and then its our responsibility to follow directions, learn the way our employer wishes us to perform the task and do it or complete it their way. The advancement opportunities are there in this industry, but every job task can be a career in itself too. What other industry can boast positions like that!
Seriously though, and this isn’t just one of those opinions of mine, your success in the warehouse and transportation fields is absolutely in your hands, you can control it. Of course, we won’t always be able to dictate the timing of our promotions or pay increases, but I do firmly believe we do control where we’ll land with our careers!
I think as employees we need to be part of the solution. When things get tough, a system goes down, we’re shorthanded, or there’s a lot of work to get done, those of us that help make things happen are the ones our management teams are going to remember. Human nature may try and drag us to the negative side, but our experiences can provide solutions. Being happy and having an open mind will make us that successful Op’s employee.
Share your story with us, maybe share something on our Facebook or Twitter feeds using @whseandops and the warehouse equipment operator’s community group. Email us at host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com with any comments or topic suggestions, we love getting mail!
Until next week, lets think before we act, and put our safety in those thoughts!