You Own It

Warehouse and Operations as a Career

OK, team WAOC, this is a wrap for 2021. I hope you’ve reached all the goals you had set, but if you haven’t, well, that’s fine as well. We’re on to 2022 next. I’m going to make it my best year yet! I’m going to plan, have my goals documented, know what I want, and go achieve it!

I had planned on reviewing 2021 today but realized that all that is in the past and I’m interested in moving forward, not looking backwards! Now, I think looking back can be important sometimes, like, if we made a mistake and want to learn from it, however I bet we’ve already examined it from every direction when it happened so, do we need to go backwards and revisit it? Not today, and not in 2022, I’m only going forward this year and I hope you feel the same way! Ok, enough about 2021, its done!

So, let’s see, I need to change note pads since we’re not recapping the afore mentioned! Here we go, let me tell you how I’m starting the new year and some ideas I’ve helped others with.

I’ve been giving a 6-week leadership class, actually we’re a week in, and I have to say that this group has been the best yet. I have a new account manager, a new payroll supervisor, an office manager, a new front-line supervisor and a recruiter/office admin that helps to keep everything running at her office and a local HR manager rounding up this session. We’re having a blast looking at both our personal and professional missions, goals, defining our roadblocks and developing our action plans for us as individuals. This same class will be held in March and open to our listeners free of charge. Check out the website in February if you’d like to enroll.

I’ve been asked, several times by our listeners, to share if it’s better to make a career out of being a machine operator, order selector, forklift driver, go into the transportation field or entering into a management role. Yeah, I put 3 or 4 questions together there! However, and honestly, there is not a right or wrong choice. Maybe with the exception of making a career out of order selecting! If you’re a long-time listener you’ll know that I think order selecting, whither in a low or high productivity setting is a great job, but it’s a job that we’ll need an exit plan or strategy to get out of. It’s a great position to make a lot of money with, but not particularly a long-term career. In my experience the order selector should accept the position knowing that in 2, 5, or 10 years that he or she will be moving on. I’ve seen order selectors make great forklift drivers and inventory control or receivers, a lot of them move on into a front-line role as a lead or supervisor. Order selectors need a plan is all I’m saying lol.

Ok, so here’s my honest answer. Ladies and gentlemen, I think any job in warehousing or transportation can be a great career. I know people that have made great lives for themselves and their families at every position we’ve talked about here at WAOC. The key is just loving your job. One of my best friends has been doing warehouse sanitation for 23 years, and on the freezer side. He owns a beautiful home and has put 2 kids through college. His oldest son chose a different path and owned his own carpet cleaning business. Another longtime friend has been with the same company for 34 years, he’s been a standup forklift reach operator for the last 26 of those years. Another gentleman I’m honored to call a friend has been with the same distribution facility for 31 years and has been their dry side supervisor for 19 of those years. Each of these people has turned down several promotions or transfers throughout their careers. They love their jobs and made careers out of them. Each of them are the best of the best at their positions. Did you notice the longevity each of them had with their companies? That’s how you make a career out of a job. And each of you can do the same thing.

Whither your passion and experiences are in the Manufacturing environment, or on the Production side of things or the Distribution part of the supply chain, oh and real quick let me defend myself for a minute! A few weeks ago, I was accused of being a little partial to distribution. I am. But that’s where my passion was realized. I did about 4 years at a manufacturing facility, and another 4 or 5 at a production plant and then 27 at a distribution center, working in both the warehouse and transportation environments. I found that I enjoyed every position in the distribution world. I started as a loader and left as a member of the management team. Back to what I was saying though. Any of the positions, in any industry that touches the supply chain is a great job and that job can be a great career. It is solely up to us. We do control our success. Not our employers, our bosses nor our management teams. We do. And that’s what WAOC is all about. Sharing how to be successful.

Ok! Ok seems to be my go-to word here today! Anyway, there is my answer to what positions I think make the best careers. Now I’d like to talk a little bit about what I started out saying regarding moving forward in 2022.

If you make a plan , a plan for where you want to be in 6 months, 8 months and 12 months, you will achieve it. I know that’s a bold statement, and yes life gets in the way sometimes. But if you factor that into your plan and work daily at it, you will reach that goal. Just this week I spoke to a lady’s brother that was planning on changing careers from the service industry, retail I think, to warehousing. He had helped her identify a facility that had general labor openings all the time. Her plan was to start out in the packing department. Within one year she wanted to move over to the unloading and receiving department. Then she wanted to move into the pallet runner task, she planned on having her pallet jack operators license by year 2. Her next task, as written in her plan was to go to the second shift as a replenishment fork driver and spend year 3 there, getting nights out of the way. Within 5 years her goal was to be a member of management as a lead or supervisor. With a plan laid out and detailed like that, she may very well be a manager in 5 or 6 years.

She’s done all her homework. She identified a company she wanted to work with, a facility that had the opportunities she was looking for, located within the driving distance she could commit too, and knows what she wants to be doing in 5 years! She will be successful!

I’ve hinted at our planning and new goals over the last 6 weeks or so! Seriously though, are you ready to be successful and start preparing for your retirement and the security for your families? We’re all probably going to make a new year’s resolution in the next 2 days. By the way, Google and Oxford languages tells us that a resolution is a firm decision to do or not do something. Got lost there for a moment! I going to say that those resolutions will probably be unrealized. New years resolutions usually do. Know why? I think it’s because resolutions are just thoughts. We don’t typically make plans for those resolutions. To succeed takes having goals. And achieving goals requires planning. And planning requires commitments from ourselves! Remember, we control our success.

It’s a new Year Ladies and Gentlemen! Be ready for it, write it down, know it, then achieve it! We control it!

Happy new year, make it the best yet, and the safest year you’ve had!