So we're all adults now, with varying degrees of responsibility. Everyone I know is either working or looking for work, and I myself am lucky enough to have held my current job for about a year and a half. Truthfully, I'm completely bored with it, and incredibly fed up with the time it consumes. A part of me would love to quit and find something else. A major reason I hesitate to do so is my previous work experience and my knowledge of what is out there. So it's going to suck for me either way.
I know, some of you are bound to be thinking, "Well, that's a part of life/growing up, Joebill, you have to do things you don't like". I'm well aware of that. I've done plenty of things I didn't like but felt I had to do. This does not change the fact that employers could do more to make me willing to go to work.
1. Have As Few Bosses As Possible
I cannot stress this enough. If at all feasible, please, only one person telling me what to do. If the number of workers makes having only one boss insufficient, by all means, have more. But only if they're actually needed. Case in point: When I worked at Wal-Mart. I was hired as part of the remodel crew (I'll have more on this later) which seems like a pretty straight forward job. They have designed a new layout for the store, we have to move products and shelves (and sometimes bring in new shelves) to fit that new design. Shouldn't be too hard, right? There were three crews of workers: I was assigned to the smallest crew, Test Scanners (as I said, more on this later). There was another crew working in the store, I forget what they called it. Basically the ones that were to be moving the products, etc. Finally, there was a warehouse crew, assigned to load up and ship out the new shelving and fixtures we would need. The "moving crew" was probably the largest. I'll estimate their number to be 15-20. The warehouse crew probably had around 10. The test scanners numbered 5. How many bosses would you think are needed for this? Keep in mind, each crew member is pretty much going to be doing the same job as the other members of his or her crew. Did you guess around 10 or a dozen? If so, Wal-Mart corporation is probably looking for someone like you. What it more rediculous is that only two of these managers were assigned to the warehouse crew: one at the warehouse, one outside for receiving. Actually kind of makes since, doesn't it? The remaining 8-10 were all for us. As you can probably imagine, this led to being told not only different things to do, but different ways to do them. Boss 1 would tell us what to do, we'd start, Boss 2 would come around and either want us to do something different or tell us we were not doing the job correctly and have us start over. Then Boss 1 would come back around and wonder what the hell we were doing. Repeat all day long, with a good half-dozen or more bosses, and you see the problem. This has long been summed up as Too Many Chiefs and Not Enough Indians.
2. If The Job Is of a Changing Nature, Know What We Will Be Doing So We Can Get Started
I'm sure it's going to seem like I'm picking on Wal-Mart, and they're not off the hook yet, but this one falls once again to them. I don't think a morning went by that we did not stand around for 1 or even 2 hours waiting for the management to decide what we would be doing that day. Hey, if you want to pay me to just stand around and do nothing, that's fine. Can I do it somewhere else, though? Barring that, can you at least have the decency to not blame me and my fellow workers when we're behind on the job? If I Am Expected To Do My Job, Make Sure You Do Yours
3. Try To Keep Me At the Job I Was Hired To Do Whenever Possible
I understand that sometimes I will be needed in other areas and have no problem with this. However, (Wal-Mart) I do not like being interviewed for a certain position, being told that is the job I will be doing, wearing a name tag that bears that position below my name, and being trained for two weeks to do that job, only to do said job for about 3 days, and spending the rest of the time being the general mule of the entire operation. And it was not just me, it was the entire crew. Hey, if you want me to haul shelves back and forth, fine. If you want me to bring in pallets of shelves and fixtures from the truck outside, that's fine too. If you want me to change out garbage cans, sweep floors, bark for the yak woman, or read Mother Goose stories to small children, that's all fine. Have the decency to tell me up front that there is a good chance I will be doing these things. Do not spend every moment telling me I will be doing one job and one job only, and then have me do everything else. Get Honest Or Die
4. Do Not Be Surprised If I Cannot Fake Enthusiasm At The Prospect Of Being Berated By A Customer Who Is Probably Wrong Anyway, Single-Handedly Cleaning A Large Warehouse In 8 Hours After 20 Men Have Spent All Day Making It A Mess, Moving Everything In The Entire Store While Trying To Keep Up With That Pesky Battalion Of Managers And Being Constantly Interrupted By Yankees Wanting To Know Where The Ding Dongs And Beer Went, Or Sweating My Soul For Next To No Pay While You Drive A Nice New Sports Car.
This one pretty much explains itself. If you want me to be enthused, give me a reason to be enthused. I'm sorry, but making you look nice for your bosses does not motivate me. Nor does the possibility of the company's stock price going up. It's not like I can afford to buy any of it. Customer Service and Tech Support are the worst for this, and I was told that was a major factor in their decision to lay me off from that job. What can I say, I'm a pretty honest person. The only motivation I ever had was the fear of losing my job. That Will Only Make You Work Just Hard Enough To Not Get Fired
5. I Understand You May Like Another Employee More Than Me. That Is No Reason For You To Be A Jerk And/Or Make The Job More Difficult For Me And Easier For Them
Another simple one here. It's human nature to not like certain people and like others. It's human nature to like some people more than you like others. However, when placed in a position of management/authority, it is considered professional to put these feelings aside and treat your employees equally. The worst offender for this in my case was the Coca Cola warehouse in Knoxville. There was something about me that boss did not like from the start. To be fair, he's a jerk to most people, but he seemed to enjoy it with me. Meanwhile, another employee who had been there only slightly longer than me, with greater strength (an assest at the job) was permitted to slowly walk through the warehouse and do less work than me. When the boss changed our jobs around to see if it was more efficient (giving the stronger man the easier job), he also changed the nature of that job, making it about ten times easier. Naturally, he looked to be doing a better job than I had. We Will All Be Equal Under The Grass, Until Then There Is No Reason For You To Be An Ass.
6. You Have Not Replaced Me With A Machine Yet, So Please Do Not Act As Though I Am One
I understand that people love to call in when they aren't sick and take a day off. I understand that you need to have your workers present. However, you need to keep in mind that, as thoroughly awesome and drop-dead sexy as I may be, I am only human. I do get sick. I worked in a warehouse packaging medical supplies for shipping to hospitals around the country. Surgical kits, which need to remain sterile. While working this job, I got sick. I was throwing up. I returned about 3 days later - with a doctor's note for those days - only to be written up because I had missed work. I had even called in each day to let them know I would not be there. It did not matter that I had been to the doctor, that the doctor had okayed my missing work those 3 days, or that if I had came to work, I would have been coughing stuff up all over the nice sterile SURGICAL SUPPLIES. I don't need to work for someone who would put my health (and the health of others) behind having one more person on the job that day, especially not for $6.35/hr. And You Wonder Why People Are Always Quitting
Again, some of you are probably thinking, "Yeah that all sucks, Joebill, but like we told you, that's how things are." I'm not disputing that. All I'm saying is that things do not have to be that way, and if anyone, be it a boss, a friend, a relative, an old teacher or a stranger on the street, wants me to be in a rush to go out and join the workforce, maybe we ought to get started on making the jobs good enough to make me want to do them.
This is a total recycle job, but it's 4:30 in the morning and I wanted to post something before I go to bed. I'll also have more pictures uploaded soon, though they're sadly old as hell. Seems no one takes pictures of me anymore unless I do it myself, and I'm pretty damn tired of that.
I know, some of you are bound to be thinking, "Well, that's a part of life/growing up, Joebill, you have to do things you don't like". I'm well aware of that. I've done plenty of things I didn't like but felt I had to do. This does not change the fact that employers could do more to make me willing to go to work.
1. Have As Few Bosses As Possible
I cannot stress this enough. If at all feasible, please, only one person telling me what to do. If the number of workers makes having only one boss insufficient, by all means, have more. But only if they're actually needed. Case in point: When I worked at Wal-Mart. I was hired as part of the remodel crew (I'll have more on this later) which seems like a pretty straight forward job. They have designed a new layout for the store, we have to move products and shelves (and sometimes bring in new shelves) to fit that new design. Shouldn't be too hard, right? There were three crews of workers: I was assigned to the smallest crew, Test Scanners (as I said, more on this later). There was another crew working in the store, I forget what they called it. Basically the ones that were to be moving the products, etc. Finally, there was a warehouse crew, assigned to load up and ship out the new shelving and fixtures we would need. The "moving crew" was probably the largest. I'll estimate their number to be 15-20. The warehouse crew probably had around 10. The test scanners numbered 5. How many bosses would you think are needed for this? Keep in mind, each crew member is pretty much going to be doing the same job as the other members of his or her crew. Did you guess around 10 or a dozen? If so, Wal-Mart corporation is probably looking for someone like you. What it more rediculous is that only two of these managers were assigned to the warehouse crew: one at the warehouse, one outside for receiving. Actually kind of makes since, doesn't it? The remaining 8-10 were all for us. As you can probably imagine, this led to being told not only different things to do, but different ways to do them. Boss 1 would tell us what to do, we'd start, Boss 2 would come around and either want us to do something different or tell us we were not doing the job correctly and have us start over. Then Boss 1 would come back around and wonder what the hell we were doing. Repeat all day long, with a good half-dozen or more bosses, and you see the problem. This has long been summed up as Too Many Chiefs and Not Enough Indians.
2. If The Job Is of a Changing Nature, Know What We Will Be Doing So We Can Get Started
I'm sure it's going to seem like I'm picking on Wal-Mart, and they're not off the hook yet, but this one falls once again to them. I don't think a morning went by that we did not stand around for 1 or even 2 hours waiting for the management to decide what we would be doing that day. Hey, if you want to pay me to just stand around and do nothing, that's fine. Can I do it somewhere else, though? Barring that, can you at least have the decency to not blame me and my fellow workers when we're behind on the job? If I Am Expected To Do My Job, Make Sure You Do Yours
3. Try To Keep Me At the Job I Was Hired To Do Whenever Possible
I understand that sometimes I will be needed in other areas and have no problem with this. However, (Wal-Mart) I do not like being interviewed for a certain position, being told that is the job I will be doing, wearing a name tag that bears that position below my name, and being trained for two weeks to do that job, only to do said job for about 3 days, and spending the rest of the time being the general mule of the entire operation. And it was not just me, it was the entire crew. Hey, if you want me to haul shelves back and forth, fine. If you want me to bring in pallets of shelves and fixtures from the truck outside, that's fine too. If you want me to change out garbage cans, sweep floors, bark for the yak woman, or read Mother Goose stories to small children, that's all fine. Have the decency to tell me up front that there is a good chance I will be doing these things. Do not spend every moment telling me I will be doing one job and one job only, and then have me do everything else. Get Honest Or Die
4. Do Not Be Surprised If I Cannot Fake Enthusiasm At The Prospect Of Being Berated By A Customer Who Is Probably Wrong Anyway, Single-Handedly Cleaning A Large Warehouse In 8 Hours After 20 Men Have Spent All Day Making It A Mess, Moving Everything In The Entire Store While Trying To Keep Up With That Pesky Battalion Of Managers And Being Constantly Interrupted By Yankees Wanting To Know Where The Ding Dongs And Beer Went, Or Sweating My Soul For Next To No Pay While You Drive A Nice New Sports Car.
This one pretty much explains itself. If you want me to be enthused, give me a reason to be enthused. I'm sorry, but making you look nice for your bosses does not motivate me. Nor does the possibility of the company's stock price going up. It's not like I can afford to buy any of it. Customer Service and Tech Support are the worst for this, and I was told that was a major factor in their decision to lay me off from that job. What can I say, I'm a pretty honest person. The only motivation I ever had was the fear of losing my job. That Will Only Make You Work Just Hard Enough To Not Get Fired
5. I Understand You May Like Another Employee More Than Me. That Is No Reason For You To Be A Jerk And/Or Make The Job More Difficult For Me And Easier For Them
Another simple one here. It's human nature to not like certain people and like others. It's human nature to like some people more than you like others. However, when placed in a position of management/authority, it is considered professional to put these feelings aside and treat your employees equally. The worst offender for this in my case was the Coca Cola warehouse in Knoxville. There was something about me that boss did not like from the start. To be fair, he's a jerk to most people, but he seemed to enjoy it with me. Meanwhile, another employee who had been there only slightly longer than me, with greater strength (an assest at the job) was permitted to slowly walk through the warehouse and do less work than me. When the boss changed our jobs around to see if it was more efficient (giving the stronger man the easier job), he also changed the nature of that job, making it about ten times easier. Naturally, he looked to be doing a better job than I had. We Will All Be Equal Under The Grass, Until Then There Is No Reason For You To Be An Ass.
6. You Have Not Replaced Me With A Machine Yet, So Please Do Not Act As Though I Am One
I understand that people love to call in when they aren't sick and take a day off. I understand that you need to have your workers present. However, you need to keep in mind that, as thoroughly awesome and drop-dead sexy as I may be, I am only human. I do get sick. I worked in a warehouse packaging medical supplies for shipping to hospitals around the country. Surgical kits, which need to remain sterile. While working this job, I got sick. I was throwing up. I returned about 3 days later - with a doctor's note for those days - only to be written up because I had missed work. I had even called in each day to let them know I would not be there. It did not matter that I had been to the doctor, that the doctor had okayed my missing work those 3 days, or that if I had came to work, I would have been coughing stuff up all over the nice sterile SURGICAL SUPPLIES. I don't need to work for someone who would put my health (and the health of others) behind having one more person on the job that day, especially not for $6.35/hr. And You Wonder Why People Are Always Quitting
Again, some of you are probably thinking, "Yeah that all sucks, Joebill, but like we told you, that's how things are." I'm not disputing that. All I'm saying is that things do not have to be that way, and if anyone, be it a boss, a friend, a relative, an old teacher or a stranger on the street, wants me to be in a rush to go out and join the workforce, maybe we ought to get started on making the jobs good enough to make me want to do them.
This is a total recycle job, but it's 4:30 in the morning and I wanted to post something before I go to bed. I'll also have more pictures uploaded soon, though they're sadly old as hell. Seems no one takes pictures of me anymore unless I do it myself, and I'm pretty damn tired of that.