Myths & Facts, or at least Opinions

Warehouse and Operations as a Career

It seems, to me anyway, that people are just talking to hear themselves talk sometimes. And I know that’s not the case. I’ve heard so many reasons why people didn’t get hired for a position, and why so and so received a new promotion, why a job pays so little or why a job pays so much. Even opinions on what a job should pay. And a lot of people commenting on background friendly jobs, or lack thereof. And one of my favorites, I was fired because, a fill in the blank comment. Every time I think I’ve heard every reason someone states why they were fired, I’m surprised with a new reason. And all the comments on how AI and robots are going to take all of our jobs away, that’s a good one! I’m Marty and today here on Warehouse and Operations as a Career I wanted to explain some of these myths, which are really just opinions of others, and share a few of my opinions, which are based on my own experiences and facts from the industry!

So lets just dive in and start with a great example of why applicant A didn’t get hired for a position and a person that came in at the same time, applicant B, did. Both were there for the same fork lift position, a counterbalance forklift. Both applicants had answered an ad on one of the major job boards and uploaded their resume and answered the few qualifying questions pretty well.

Applicant A was invited back to interview with a hiring agent. The recruiter was going through the resume, asking questions, the regular type of questions like, why did you leave this or that company, tell me about your day on the receiving dock, was you hauling or racking freight most of your day, how did you feel about your immediate supervisor, did you feel there was growth opportunities etc, y’all know the drill!

Ok, Applicant A, did not have a copy of the resume with them, the recruiter wasn’t sure applicant A even remembered what was written on the resume. The recruiter felt like they had to give leading questions just to get answers. The interview lasted only 15ish minutes. Applicant A didn’t ask any questions, and no thank you as the recruiter thanked them for coming in and expressed they would reach out should they decide to extend an offer.

Now Applicant B was called back for their interview. Applicant B had their resume in their hand. They we’re asked all the same questions and presented answers. This applicant actually had a few short experiences at several places, however, they had and shared, an explanation for each. By the way, this applicant was wearing their steeltoe footwear. The interview lasted 35 or so minutes. Applicant was on-boarded, hired, and given a date to go take their PIT class.

As a side note, Applicant A came in a few weeks later asking to see another recruiter, stating his first one didn’t like them.

Its all about being prepared. If you’re a long time listener you’ll remember from our visits with recruiters the importance of selling yourself, asking questions, showing interest. Applicant B got the job even though their work history wasent as consistent as applicant A.

Its just like when we see a position on a Facebook job board and they give us a phone number, an email address, and maybe a physical address to go apply yet we comment with the word interested.

The recruiter was indifferent between the two candidates, one stood out, had nothing to do with liking either.

Moving on, lets talk about Why I didn’t get the promotion. Worker A had been at the facility for 16 months. They were in the top 3 productivity wise. Worker B had been with them for almost 8 months and was about 12^th on the cases per hour sheet.

Worker B came in every day anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes early. Looking at the attendance record, they had missed 2 days, both scheduled, in that 8 months. Worker B had had several fly by visits with the Supervisor, maybe it was the manager I think, regarding how he wanted to do other things someday.

Worker A came in a little early or right on time most days, however they’d been tardy 18 times and called in 11 times in 16 their 16 months.

I’m not sure how they found out there was a lead position opening, maybe someone was being promoted or leaving, any how, both stopped by and mentioned it to the Supervisor. I’m sure the supervisor visited with the manager and it was decided that Worker B would be a stronger associate to invest training in.

Yes, it not necessarily right that we’re judged on our past performances, but I believe we can all understand why the choice was made.

I cant stress enough how important being THAT employee is in our Careers.

Lets talk about AI, we’re all hearing how AI is going to take so many jobs. A great accountability partner of mine explained to me that AI is only going to take jobs from people that don’t know how to use AI. I won’t get on my learning soapbox today but, well, we have to learn, learn, and learn. Have an open mind and vision regarding where we want to be every 3 years or so.

Anyway, there are so many positions in our light industrial industry that can and will be affected by AI but I think, for now at least, the labor positions are safe for a bit!

And robots, OMG, yes, we are and will continue to see automated, to some degree, forklifts, palletjacks, sorter machines etc in the distribution world. However, they are 10’s of years away from presenting a worry to us. Again, it’ll be those that fight it and don’t learn to work within the technology that will be moving on. Think about the manufacturing and production plants. Machinery was introduced to them back in the industrial revolution back in the early 19^th century. Think of the steam engine, and the flour mills, and more recently the CNC machines and assembly lines, pressworking operations, and yes AI. They all created positions to run them. Many of the positions just switched from the labor side to the operating, programing, and maintenance side.

Let me see, I think we have time for one or two more opinions!

Here’s one, and this is a serious one, its one I struggle with and quite frankly don’t agree with or understand. Like I said earlier, I don’t necessarily believe that our past is a contributing factor regarding employment but, nor should any of us expect companies or hiring agents to take our word for something. I’ve always wanted to show you what I can do.

We all see job boards, even Facebook job groups that have advertisements for positions that say drug screen and background check required. That could mean that there looking for a clean background or maybe the old 3 and 7 rule! Meaning nothing newer than 3 years since the last misdemeanor or 7 years since a conviction on a felony.

In many instances we may have to forgo that great paying job for now and work our way into it. I suggest to stay away from those post, not always but for now. Lets look for that good paying position in a smaller corporation, get our foot in the door, gain a few years of experience with what we’d like to be doing, and maybe growing within that company or building some time on a job. Then we can go back out into the market and we’ll have more to sell. Again, I want to mention being THAT employee. It’ll take us a long way.

And then, my personal favorite. They fired me. In my experience I’ve known less than a handful of people that’s been fired by a member of management. Now laid off or a reduction in the workforce is not what I’m talking about. I mean fired. To be fired by our supervisor, or manager, or the HR department for no reason, well, that could be just unlawful period. And as employees we have protections and recourses for such of course.

But what I hear 10 times a week across the nation is how associates have fired themselves. Serisouly, think about it. We took the job, we knew the start times, the end time, the shift hours and days, the job description, and all the expectations. And when we do not arrive on-time, or leave early, and don’t show up for each shift, maybe call in to often or tardy to much, or do the task our way vs the way we were trained. Well, so who fired us?

Of course we need time off occasionally and we may have to be late punching in once or twice or need to leave early, maybe even miss our production or productivity numbers a few times. I’m pretty certain we’re not going to be let go as long as those occurrences are the exception and not the rule for us.

As a matter of fact, we’ve probably been spoken to, coached or given a corrective action form if the management team notices or feels like a trend is developing.

If we, what do we want to call it, if we abuse or aren’t concerned with the rules and expectations, didn’t we actually fire ourselves?

The company and shift needs the headcount and productivity scheduled to get the jobs done. We’re in the bigs now, not the retail or food service industries. I like using the word professionals. That’s what we are correct!

I know some of those opinions are a little point blank, but aren’t they all true and factual? I guess it’s how you look at them. That’s why there called opinions, we all have them!

I want to thank you for taking to time to join us here at WAOC today and appreciate you. If you have any questions or would like to comment on any of the topics today you can reach out to our X and Facebook pages using @whseops or emailing us at warehouseandoperationsasacareer. Com.

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Be safe, others are waiting on us to get home each day!