My boss, the president of the company, is allowing #1 son to come to work here. He'll take some shit for being the son of the big boss, but it should allow him to get ahead a little instead of just subsisting.
Cross your fingers.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The Sweet Daddio Medal of Honor
And I do mean Honor.
The Sweet Daddio Medal of Honor is awarded for doing the right thing, not for doing things right.
I have a young employee. He's a friend of #1 son. He had been to the house for dinner a few times with #1. He is one of "the new friends" which #1 made after moving out on his own. He is not cut from the same material as the slacker country club kids #1 hung out with when we first moved here. I'll call him Ladd. Ladd has been on his own since turning 18, he is now 20. He has not seen his father since he was 10. I don't know all the details, but I know his mother moved them to the Deep South from upstate NY, possibly to get away from an abusive situation. Ladd was out on his own for very different reasons than our #1. His mother did all she could to support them, but when he reached the age of consent he went out to find his own way to give her some relief. He had been working at the newspaper (which is where #1 met him, but they happened to live in the same apartment building) and held that job for 2 1/2 years and was making $6.50/hour. He approached me when out at the house one evening, very cautiously.
"Mr. D, I was wanting to talk to you about opportunities for jobs where you work."
"Sure, I'll be glad to talk to you. Are you ready to leave the paper?"
"Yes sir. My girlfriend is pregnant and I want, I need to make more money now that I'm going to be a father."
"Are you going to get married?"
"Yes. She needs to stay on her parents insurance until after the baby comes, so we will get married after the birth. I'm definately going to marry her and raise my child."
"Good, that's the right thing to do. Come out and put in an application and tell the HR guy to put my name at the top."
So, I happen to have a honey of an opening for a warehouseman/inventory control person in the new warehouse/distribution center we completed last fall. No one was surviving on the job mainly because it is both a thinking and working position. It is also the highest paying wage position I have. I put him on the job and never looked back. He took ownership of the job, suggested ways to streamline the process, keeps the new forklift looking showroom new, and has not had an incorrect shipment or inventory error. I rarely "throw my weight" around in personnel matters, but I raised him to top pay 30 days quicker than the norm. I can't say enough good things about the kid. His immediate supervisor is happier than I am with the situation as well.
3 weeks ago his baby was born on Saturday morning. A healthy boy, 7 lbs something. He was on time to work Monday morning, walking 6 inches off the floor. He was obviously happy, and announced he would be getting married in about a month. He moved out of his small but affordable apartment into a house trailer in the country, so his son would have a yard to play in when he starts walking. He's been through the usual new parent issues of dragging a few days from shortage of sleep but hasn't failed in his duties.
Until yesterday.
He is always early, at least 15 minutes. Yesterday he was only 2 minutes early (which is great in my book) but looked very shell shocked. We had some incoming finished stock from the manufacturing plant to locate in the warehouse, he put in the raw materials warehouse. The first outgoing order for the day he pulled the exact right quantity, just wrong color. Something was obviously wrong. Finally about 1:00 his supervisor called and said Ladd wanted to leave early. It seems a DNA test indicated he was not the father of the baby. Obviously, he had a lot to tend to.
This morning he was there 15 minutes early (that location starts the day at 7:00 a.m. so 15 min early is an accomplishment). He and I went for a walk through the warehouse.
"Mr. D I'm sorry about having to leave yesterday. I'll go ahead and start pulling yesterday afternoon's orders right away."
"Ladd, if you need to talk I'll take my boss hat off and we'll sit here on these pallets and talk."
He teared up. "Mr D, I love little Ladd, and I'm going to be his Dad even if I'm not his father. Missy and I have a few things to work through. She says the father is the abusive ex-asshole she was involved with before me and that he came back around for a few days 10 months ago. He's one of those guys with that kind of affect on women. She's got to work out the details with him, but I want to marry her and adopt Little Ladd. I can't let him grow up with an abusive asshole for a father. I just can't."
Having a baby out of wed-lock was not doing things right, but he is certainly doing the right thing.
The Sweet Daddio Medal of Honor is awarded for doing the right thing, not for doing things right.
I have a young employee. He's a friend of #1 son. He had been to the house for dinner a few times with #1. He is one of "the new friends" which #1 made after moving out on his own. He is not cut from the same material as the slacker country club kids #1 hung out with when we first moved here. I'll call him Ladd. Ladd has been on his own since turning 18, he is now 20. He has not seen his father since he was 10. I don't know all the details, but I know his mother moved them to the Deep South from upstate NY, possibly to get away from an abusive situation. Ladd was out on his own for very different reasons than our #1. His mother did all she could to support them, but when he reached the age of consent he went out to find his own way to give her some relief. He had been working at the newspaper (which is where #1 met him, but they happened to live in the same apartment building) and held that job for 2 1/2 years and was making $6.50/hour. He approached me when out at the house one evening, very cautiously.
"Mr. D, I was wanting to talk to you about opportunities for jobs where you work."
"Sure, I'll be glad to talk to you. Are you ready to leave the paper?"
"Yes sir. My girlfriend is pregnant and I want, I need to make more money now that I'm going to be a father."
"Are you going to get married?"
"Yes. She needs to stay on her parents insurance until after the baby comes, so we will get married after the birth. I'm definately going to marry her and raise my child."
"Good, that's the right thing to do. Come out and put in an application and tell the HR guy to put my name at the top."
So, I happen to have a honey of an opening for a warehouseman/inventory control person in the new warehouse/distribution center we completed last fall. No one was surviving on the job mainly because it is both a thinking and working position. It is also the highest paying wage position I have. I put him on the job and never looked back. He took ownership of the job, suggested ways to streamline the process, keeps the new forklift looking showroom new, and has not had an incorrect shipment or inventory error. I rarely "throw my weight" around in personnel matters, but I raised him to top pay 30 days quicker than the norm. I can't say enough good things about the kid. His immediate supervisor is happier than I am with the situation as well.
3 weeks ago his baby was born on Saturday morning. A healthy boy, 7 lbs something. He was on time to work Monday morning, walking 6 inches off the floor. He was obviously happy, and announced he would be getting married in about a month. He moved out of his small but affordable apartment into a house trailer in the country, so his son would have a yard to play in when he starts walking. He's been through the usual new parent issues of dragging a few days from shortage of sleep but hasn't failed in his duties.
Until yesterday.
He is always early, at least 15 minutes. Yesterday he was only 2 minutes early (which is great in my book) but looked very shell shocked. We had some incoming finished stock from the manufacturing plant to locate in the warehouse, he put in the raw materials warehouse. The first outgoing order for the day he pulled the exact right quantity, just wrong color. Something was obviously wrong. Finally about 1:00 his supervisor called and said Ladd wanted to leave early. It seems a DNA test indicated he was not the father of the baby. Obviously, he had a lot to tend to.
This morning he was there 15 minutes early (that location starts the day at 7:00 a.m. so 15 min early is an accomplishment). He and I went for a walk through the warehouse.
"Mr. D I'm sorry about having to leave yesterday. I'll go ahead and start pulling yesterday afternoon's orders right away."
"Ladd, if you need to talk I'll take my boss hat off and we'll sit here on these pallets and talk."
He teared up. "Mr D, I love little Ladd, and I'm going to be his Dad even if I'm not his father. Missy and I have a few things to work through. She says the father is the abusive ex-asshole she was involved with before me and that he came back around for a few days 10 months ago. He's one of those guys with that kind of affect on women. She's got to work out the details with him, but I want to marry her and adopt Little Ladd. I can't let him grow up with an abusive asshole for a father. I just can't."
Having a baby out of wed-lock was not doing things right, but he is certainly doing the right thing.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Oi! Kids these days
For those who remember Sleeper B from earlier, he fell asleep on the job again 2 weeks after the first incident. Again, it was on a Friday, the day after payday. You can guess the scene when I let him go.
I was traveling on business Mon and Tues the following week, so I let one of my Leutenants interview and hire the replacement. On top of needing a replacement we also expanded by 2 more that week, so we hired 3. Lt A has a poor track record hiring, but I gave him instructions on what to look for, mainly I wanted more mature workers this time. Hiring sub-25's hasn't been working too good. Since he did the screening interviews, I don't have any good stories. He narrowed 8 down to 3. 2 I agreed with, the 3rd I was sceptical of, but Lt. A wanted to "give the young man a chance." So I relented. This past Thursday was his 2 week anniversary. In that 2 weeks, he has been tardy 4 times, 3 20 minutes or more.
Today (Saturday) we were scheduled to run the entire plant. At 8:03 the night shift man due to be relieved by "C" came up "Where dahells my relief?"
Lt. A said "He'll be here, so you go on. I'll cover the job till he gets here." At 8:20 I told Lt. A to call his house. 5 minutes later he reported "He said he appreciated the opportunity for some overtime but he would pass this week."
"Did you explain to him it wasn't optional?"
"No, I just told him it wasn't good."
So I called his house. A female answered. "Can I speak to C please?"
"He ain't here"
"O.K. give him a message. This is Mr. D, the Big Boss at work. Tell him if he isn't here by 9:00 to not bother coming back."
"He cain't get a ride"
"That's not my problem"
At 8:58 he came in. This is where it gets interesting.
I brought him into the office. "C, I need you here. This a 3 shift operation, and it needs to run 24 hours a day. Do you understand the importance of being on time?"
"Yessir, but the man in the other part over there don't fuss about it so much so the people I ride with don't have to get here early."
(To clarify- I take direct control of the new part, which is really the future of the company and let the manager of the "other part over there" run the day to day operations and minutia, like attendence. I will get involved a little more now.)
"Then drive yourself"
"I don't got no car"
"You told Lt. A in your first interview, and me in the follow-up, that you had a car"
"I know, but my ex has dat car and I don't get to drive it"
"I hate to be cold, but that's not my problem. Running this plant is my problem. Your 90 day probationary period ends June 8th. I will allow you one more tardy because I know shit happens, but 2 tardys and you are gone. You will not get any raises during this time."
''Mr. D, I'll work late all you need me to, but I really like to do things on Saturday"
"Then you need to go find another job that's just part time"
"Mr. D I got 5 kids. I got to have a good job. I need to make more than I'm making now."
Shock. "How old are you?"
"23"
"23 and you have 5 kids?!"
"Yessir. Me and my first lady had 2, then while she was pregnant with the 3rd I went looking for a little action on the side and got another lady pregnant, and my first lady threw me out. The 2nd lady had twins, we livin together now but the judge is making me pay a lot of support to the first lady."
After I recovered I said "Well, that's really none of my business. You made your choices, it's your problem to deal with the results. What I said earlier stands. 1 more tardy in the rest of your probationary period and no raises."
"Come on Mr. D. You ain't gonna hold it against a guy cause he needed a little action are you? She'd done cut me off at da house."
And I thought I had problems.
I was traveling on business Mon and Tues the following week, so I let one of my Leutenants interview and hire the replacement. On top of needing a replacement we also expanded by 2 more that week, so we hired 3. Lt A has a poor track record hiring, but I gave him instructions on what to look for, mainly I wanted more mature workers this time. Hiring sub-25's hasn't been working too good. Since he did the screening interviews, I don't have any good stories. He narrowed 8 down to 3. 2 I agreed with, the 3rd I was sceptical of, but Lt. A wanted to "give the young man a chance." So I relented. This past Thursday was his 2 week anniversary. In that 2 weeks, he has been tardy 4 times, 3 20 minutes or more.
Today (Saturday) we were scheduled to run the entire plant. At 8:03 the night shift man due to be relieved by "C" came up "Where dahells my relief?"
Lt. A said "He'll be here, so you go on. I'll cover the job till he gets here." At 8:20 I told Lt. A to call his house. 5 minutes later he reported "He said he appreciated the opportunity for some overtime but he would pass this week."
"Did you explain to him it wasn't optional?"
"No, I just told him it wasn't good."
So I called his house. A female answered. "Can I speak to C please?"
"He ain't here"
"O.K. give him a message. This is Mr. D, the Big Boss at work. Tell him if he isn't here by 9:00 to not bother coming back."
"He cain't get a ride"
"That's not my problem"
At 8:58 he came in. This is where it gets interesting.
I brought him into the office. "C, I need you here. This a 3 shift operation, and it needs to run 24 hours a day. Do you understand the importance of being on time?"
"Yessir, but the man in the other part over there don't fuss about it so much so the people I ride with don't have to get here early."
(To clarify- I take direct control of the new part, which is really the future of the company and let the manager of the "other part over there" run the day to day operations and minutia, like attendence. I will get involved a little more now.)
"Then drive yourself"
"I don't got no car"
"You told Lt. A in your first interview, and me in the follow-up, that you had a car"
"I know, but my ex has dat car and I don't get to drive it"
"I hate to be cold, but that's not my problem. Running this plant is my problem. Your 90 day probationary period ends June 8th. I will allow you one more tardy because I know shit happens, but 2 tardys and you are gone. You will not get any raises during this time."
''Mr. D, I'll work late all you need me to, but I really like to do things on Saturday"
"Then you need to go find another job that's just part time"
"Mr. D I got 5 kids. I got to have a good job. I need to make more than I'm making now."
Shock. "How old are you?"
"23"
"23 and you have 5 kids?!"
"Yessir. Me and my first lady had 2, then while she was pregnant with the 3rd I went looking for a little action on the side and got another lady pregnant, and my first lady threw me out. The 2nd lady had twins, we livin together now but the judge is making me pay a lot of support to the first lady."
After I recovered I said "Well, that's really none of my business. You made your choices, it's your problem to deal with the results. What I said earlier stands. 1 more tardy in the rest of your probationary period and no raises."
"Come on Mr. D. You ain't gonna hold it against a guy cause he needed a little action are you? She'd done cut me off at da house."
And I thought I had problems.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Why I moved
I recently hired one of #1 son's friends, and for legal/ethical reasons I became concerned with the connection and the possibility one of my employees might read what I was writing.
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