Getting our way – How to get what we want

Warehouse and Operations as a Career

Last week we talked a lot about ethics and our work ethics. Late in the week I heard about a facility where the rest room had been vandalized and graffitied by people or someone writing on the stalls with paint and markers. I’m Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career and today I wanted to get caught up on a few questions, and we’re going to get to them but first I thought I’d reach out to all of you for an answer! I wish I could describe to you how bad this restroom was torn up. And I understand how if we’re upset about something it can misdirect our thinking and our actions. I think we can we apply what we learned about work ethics here! But destroying a restroom? Now it has to be remodeled. How does that help our cause, if there even was one? If we are upset about an injustice, would it not have been better to reach out to our HR department? Now I don’t know, and it appears that no one has even suggested that there was a problem with the work, management, or that the actions were because of anything that happened at the workplace.

So, why does this happen? If you can explain it to me or have an opinion on it, please send us an email to [e-mail]. I’d love to share your thoughts on an upcoming episode! Everyone is 18 years old or older at this facility. It is a large production facility, not something like customer service or retail, nothing like fast food etc. It’s a job that can be a long-term career. It pays well and although the task is hard, and its labor intensive, they have for the most part, not had any employee relation issues. This is the 3^rd time this year that I have heard of something like this happening, across 3 different states! I’d love for someone to share the thought process with me!

Ok, enough of all that. It is difficult to talk about a subject that I do not understand! So, I spent the better part of this week in Arizonia. This has been a great trip. I don’t think I mentioned I had spent a couple of days out in Denver last week. I had the pleasure of PIT training a couple of trainers. I went from a cool and breezy environment to a bit warmer region! Anyway, I’m over here doing the same, a bit more PIT training. It’s great to see everybody doing great work in both regions. The culture of safety is on everyone’s mind in both states. The enthusiasm I’ve seen is refreshing. Oh, and all the talk about the holidays coming up makes me smile!

Over the last several weeks I’ve been asked about advancement opportunities and how do you make sure your boss knows that we want another position, a promotion, more responsibility and more money.

I answered 3 people with a question. I asked “have you told your management team that you’re interested in more? I received three answers of no. One person said if she brings it up that she may get fired.

Ladies and gentlemen, I understand that walking up to our boss and discussing another position, or saying we’d like to change departments is out of our comfort zone. However, In my experience, if we can just bring ourselves to broach the subject, even something as simple as saying “hey boss, how am I doing, I think I’ve been doing a pretty good job for you, what can I do to move to the ________position? A simple form of communication! We have not sounded threatening, or negative in any way. If you could throw in the word responsibility somewhere, that’d be even better! “Hey boss, I’m ready for a little more responsibility. Keep me in mind the next time a position opens up that I could help you with.” Again, you’ve let your management team know that you’re ready and open to opportunities. And for the young lady that stated she was worried that she could lose her present position if she asked for something else. I’d have to believe that would just not be the case. You are only letting him or her know that you want more. Think about it, you’re doing a great job now. Your productivity and attendance is well above average. They have invested in you, trained you, and rely on you to get the job done right?

Now that brings up the other side of the coin though! We need to be that person. The employee we’re always talking about here on WAOC. If we are that employee who is on-time for every shift, and remember by being on-time I mean at least 15 minutes early, and we come in prepared to work, dressed properly, with our PPE’s and a smile on our face, well, why wouldn’t we get that next promotion? Oh, and another thing I should mention. If we have only been in our position for oh, say, 6 months. That’s too soon to be asking about opportunities. I think we should be in our present jobs at least a year before we, the employee, goes and starts talking about advancement. Now if our management brings it up first, then by all means interject any time you have the opportunity.

As I’ve mention hundreds of times over the last 5 years on the show, communication is our friend, and our strongest tool in regard to our careers. I’m not talking about email or texting. I’m saying that if we talk to our peers, supervisors, and our management teams that we will advance withing our industries.

Another question that was sent in, and I think we all can relate to some form of it, was, “my company has a pretty good safety record, but I want to suggest putting together a safety committee or working on something that could strengthen our culture of safety. A way to make everyone think about improving themselves.”

Well, and this is an easy one. I can’t think of a single person in management that would not want to achieve the things you just mentioned. Again, I’m going to throw out the communication word again. There are thousands of articles online that talk about the advantages of having or developing a strong safety culture within your organization. If you do a little self-educating on the subject and come armed with a few thoughts and ideas, supported by a few articles or a plan, I assure you they will want to hear more. Be careful what you wish for though, you may be that new safety committee organizer! No, I’m just kidding. Talk about it, you may just find that management has been looking for a program themselves, maybe it was just put on the back burner for a while. Safety is everyone’s responsibility and I hope everyone’s passion. This was a great question and I hope I gave you some ideas. If you’d like to talk more about it, shoot me an email, I’d love to share a few thoughts with you.

Let’s see, I think we have time for one more question. Gosh I have like 15 here, oh, how about this one. “I am looking for a job. I have a lot of unloading experience and a little time spent as an order selector. I can only work about 25 hours a week. I’m thinking maybe 3 days a week and not working on the weekends or 2^nd shifts. The only positions I can find accepting those hours are fast food and retail. Why aren’t warehouses willing to work parttime workers?”

Maybe I picked the wrong question! Ok, so a lot of our warehouse positions like, g/l, equipment operators, sanitation etc require the opening and closing of the doors. Our shifts have a set number of cases to bring in or ship out each day. Knowing the productivity, the shift runs can determine the headcount required to get the product in or out. Historically, parttime workers just wouldn’t work. Or I should say that it didn’t seem that it would work. All that being said, I think those old assumptions are being rethought and tested now. I’m seeing schedules being played with, different things being tried. I know a few organizations that are open to associates sharing what days and what hours they would like to work and giving it a shot. To be honest though, I am not hearing a lot of success stories. Associates seem to have the same struggles committing to even the hours they themselves have chosen. But it’s new, it’s going to be tested and figured out. I think 3 years from now it will be much more accepted.

Anyway, again I am going to say put it out there. Communicate, verbally, during the interview process. You’ll never know if it’s on the table until your recruiter or hiring agent runs it up the flagpole, right? Bring your resume, be confident, share the days and hours that you are willing to commit to and explain why those hours are necessary. You don’t have to share any personal details but share what you can. Again, communicate, it can’t hurt, and I believe that by talking and sharing we will always come out ahead.

I hope I gave you some ideas how to get our way or how to get what we want today! I thank you for stopping in today and I hope to see you again next week. Until then, communicate, talk, be confident in yourself, and go ask for what you want. And as always, be safe out there.