Let’s revisit our Choices, It’s all about Choices

Warehouse and Operations as a Career

Welcome back, and thank you for checking in with us today! I’m Marty with Warehouse and Operations as a Career and today I’d like to talk a little about choices. This week I’ve witnessed a lot of incidents where people made some great one’s and where individuals went a different direction than I would have. I guess when we think about it we’re making choices every day, really every hour that is going to affect us or that next hour in some way or another. Just this morning going to work I saw driver speed up to go through an amber or yellow traffic light instead of safely applying his breaks to stop. Now I’m talking about him wanting to make it through the light, with more than enough room to safely stop but he made the choice to accelerate and run through the red light. He chose to risk his vehicle and life as well as the other vehicles and the lives of the people that had started proceeding through their green light. Another choice I see a lot here in the Dallas area are people that just lead such busy lives that instead of waiting their turn in the left turn lane they choose to run ahead of everyone that’s waiting their turn and turn from the center lane. They don’t seem to care that everyone’s slowing down now while their inching in front of someone and forcing others to stop. I’m certain their just special people or entitled in some way but they Choose to make that choice, again that’s their choice. We can find ourselves doing the same thing at work can’t we? We’re in a hurry, or think we’re in a hurry and can make a less than desirable outcome choice. I saw a gentleman lifting a pallet from the 4th level, there was about 3 cases hanging from the front right corner, probably dislodged when the pallet us placed there. Anyway, instead of pausing the lift and going to get someone to help scoot the cases back in place he chose to try and pull the pallet out. Although he was being extremely careful and by the way taking a lot of time trying to remove the pallet without dropping the cases, 2 of the three fell the 12 feet to the ground, damaging $212 worth of freight. But it’s all about choices right.

Here’s one that left me scratching my head. I was at a sourcing company and had a Recruiter grab me to visit with a young applicant she was interviewing. She ask me to speak with him about a training class I would be teaching the following Monday. The gentleman had just really entered the workforce, I think he’d said he’d had two jobs before and was presently working as general labor at a lumber yard. He was moving and needed a job in the area. She had told him about the 3 day class and how it included some instruction on the pallet jack and forklifts as well as the basics of warehousing 101. I visited with the gentleman and his father, explained what the class could offer and how it could be advantageous for him to take it. The recruiter had some great jobs that he would qualify for upon graduation but she also had a position he could start tomorrow. I had explained that after graduating the class and being accepted for one of the positions she had spoken with him about that he should see 5 to 10% increases pretty quickly and once he’d gathered a little more experience on the equipment, which they would be willing to spend time training him with, getting a little experience, he’d be looking at substantial increases within 6 to 8 months. His issue with the class was that he’d have to wait a week to start working. Keep in mind now that the class was going to be free, the new employer was refunding its cost. But he couldn’t get past the fact that it’d delay his start by 1 week. Even after I ran the numbers for him, and showed him the difference in just the first month of employment between his choice of taking the position starting in the morning and forgoing the training class. He chose to make $40 a week less so he would not have to wait a week to start? Of course we’re all allowed to make our own choices but that’s not the direction I’d have taken if confronted with the same choices. But of course it was fine that that was his choice, it just worked for him.

I can kind of understand this one here, to a degree maybe. A young man working for a staffing agency quit because no one was going to bring his check out to the facility on Thursday. Ok, a little background on this story. When the gentleman was hired he was asked for a direct deposit number or account, at the time he didn’t have one. So the hiring agent explained that he’d receive his first two checks live and usually on Thursdays but after that, if he didn’t set up some sort of direct deposit that he’d need to come by the staffing office on Fridays to pick it up or they could mail it and people usually received it on Saturdays or Mondays. Well, I guess someone was trying to help him out, anyway he never set up a direct deposit and someone was bringing his checks out to him for like 5 weeks on Thursdays. This particular week no one was available to run it out there and he got really upset. His solution was to quit, of course then he came out to pick up his check. Again, it’s all about choices, he chose not to set up his direct deposit and chose not to accept that responsibility. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with him making those choices, just not the choice to further our careers.

Here at WAOC we’re all about furthering our careers. I believe we as applicants and employees do have to shoulder the weight or responsibility of our jobs though. Today I took a call from a young gentleman I had helped place twice before. His recruiter was little hesitant to employee him again as he had been released from his last three assignments due to attendance issues. Knowing him as well as I do I could speak with him openly so I asked him if he’d resolved all those past issues, had reliable transportation and resolved his past family matters. He told me everything was fixed and he didn’t understand why two different staffing agencies he’d worked with in the past wouldn’t give him another job! I think it’s important for us as applicants to remember our reputation or work history with agencies is as important as our credit scores and our word is! People that hire us entail quite a bit of expense bringing us on board and I think we should respect that. I believe he’s ready to go back to work so I’ll do my best to find him an agency or position that’ll fit his skills and needs. But it’s a choice the hiring agents and recruiters that’s dealt with him in the past will make for themselves and we have to understand that.

Talking about maybe being a responsible job applicant I’d like to mention our Social Media profiles again. It’s so important, our prospective employers are looking at them. Right or wrong they are making choices from them. Let’s at least clean them up while we’re looking for our new job. It really is that important.

When we get that dream job I feel we can keep it? We spoke late last quarter about how our bosses honestly rarely actually terminate our employment, how they don’t fire us we usually fire ourselves. We know the rules, processes and procedures, now we may choose not to always follow them though. And let’s be honest, sometimes life is going to get in our way and we make a choice we wouldn’t normally choose. I’m a big proponent of family first but I think we need to keep in the back of our minds that we need to be able to take care of our family’s too!

In summary, our lives are all about choices, the choices we make. As applicants, employees, shoot members of society, lets carry those responsibilities and acknowledge them as ours. I’m big on growth, not really just in our careers but our personal lives and I’ve always felt if there’s a plan and goals and we strive to follow that plan that we’ll reach those goals! Again, it’s all about choices, our choices, right?

I hope we’ve brought up something that helps you in your careers today, I know I rambled a little but as you know I do believe we’ll all be successful if that’s our goal. I appreciate you listening in today and I’d love to hear from ya, tell us what you think about choices and share some of your greatest ones! Until next week lets all think before we make that choice and always chose to be Safe with everything we do!