Sometimes, just sometimes, I miss managing.

At break someone said, "Supervisor said we have a morale problem."

I said:

We don't have a morale problem. Morale problems are a symptom. It's never the problem. The problem is attention. People value what is noticed. The first Toyota Prius looked like a normal car. It wasn't noticed. People want to do good things for the environment, but they want to be noticed for it. When Toyota changed the design to the distinctive look it has now people were noticed for being green and they sold like crazy. Being noticed counts.

When a press is making bad product and the mechanic notices, it's not the press' fault. It's the mechanic's fault. If an employee is on their cell phone or not doing their quality checks, or is charging their phone out in plain sight and the supervisor doesn't say anything it's not the employee's fault when it keeps happening. When a supervisor spends more time hanging out and shooting the shit with employees and trying to be their friend and their boss notices and does nothing it's not the supervisor's fault. It's the plant manager's fault. 

We all see these things. We all know who the employees are who are slacking and and we know the supervisors that know it. We see them. They see us see them, and they don't care. They don't care that we don't call them on doing their job. (wrong pronoun... I still self-identify as management - oops)

I get it. It's hard to tell someone "do your job" but that IS their job. If they're not going to do it that attitude, that laziness, that "well, maybe it'll fix itself" attitude spreads like oil on water and it's a problem. 

So, people notice bosses not noticing. They assume they don't care, that the supervisors aren't invested, that it isn't  important, that the work THEY do, the good employees do, isn't important, and they feel devalued. They feel like they don't matter. And they feel it because those higher than them, those who are supposed to notice the value of the employees, to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior aren't doing their job, they aren't noticing. 

You can't train a puppy to not piss or shit on the floor by hugging it and cuddling it and hoping it'll figure it out. That's not how it works. You get a very friendly, very messy puppy, and a floor you can't walk across. That's where we are now. There are piles of shit everywhere and the supervisors and bosses just put on taller boots and look at those below them, us, and wonder why we're so grumpy and smell like shit.

Well, look up and around for the problem, not down. Looking down isn't the answer. Looking down is about blaming and not fixing.

No, morale isn't a problem. This ship has no captain and forty-seven stewards bringing us fresh towels as we careen wildly around the Atlantic hoping we don't hit anything.

I stopped, realized I'd gotten a little erm... passionate, and said, "Well, that or we're just a grumpy bunch of bitches. Sorry."

"Dude. You should be a supervisor."
"I was for like fifteen years."
"I mean here."
"Hell no. Y'all are a bunch of grumpy bitches."
Everyone laughed... but money says what I said is repeated.

Sometimes it's frustrating to see a job that I've done and know I'm good at, be done badly by people who are afraid if they try and DO the job that people won't like them. No, asshat. People will like and respect a boss more who IS a boss than one who is their buddy and doesn't do anything to fix things but joins in the gripefests. Sometimes I miss management. I was good at it. Part of the problem is the skill set that gets trained and tested for to be management is to be good with the machines, but the supervisors don't supervise machines. They supervise people.

I'm an introvert...

I'm not unhappy. This is my "neutral" face. :)

"Why do you go sit in your car to eat lunch?" The person who asked it often ate lunch in the office instead of the break room & it was a legitimate question. It's been really cold this winter and most days when I got a lunch I'd go out of the building to eat it.

"I'm an introvert. I need time away from people to charge my batteries. I love customer service. I love helping people but if I don't get away from them after a while I start to get anxious."

"Really? You are so outgoing and happy and... bubbly with everybody, all the time. I'd have never guessed."

"I know, and it's exhausting. I'm beat at the end of the day. I suck at groups. A concert would be hell for me. A crowded bar to go hang out? A nightmare. I fake it when I'm at work. I'm acting. I put on my work costume and it's like an actor dressing for a part. I play the part of someone who is extroverted, charming, and funny who loves large groups of people but it's all acting."

"You're really good at it. I'd have never guessed. You really do seem happy."

"I am happy. Introverted doesn't mean sad. It doesn't mean lonely either. It just means I need some down time to recharge. Extroverts get energy from being around other people and introverts get it when we're by ourselves. It's not a bad thing."

"I didn't mean it like that it's just... I can't see it at all."

"That's because I'm a very good actor. I do it all the time, and mostly people don't know it or notice because if I'm around a lot of people, or at work, then I'm acting. I really like people one on one or even in small groups. But at work... it's a lot. Sometimes I just need to get away for a minute. So, I go eat lunch in my car or go straighten the stock room or take the trash out and patrol the parking lot for litter. Just little breaks is all."

"That's so weird. I'd have never guessed. I've heard you call your work clothes a costume before and wondered why you said that."

"And now you know," I said as I grabbed my lunch bag and clocked out for lunch in my car.

"Huh. Weird," she said as the door closed behind me. I smiled and waved. She smiled and waved back.

So, yeah. That happened.

I don't speak Spanish but I try...

I get to talk to foreigners the most at work. 

Other sales people, they’ll come and get me. I don’t speak Spanish.  I don’t care that I don’t speak Spanish. 

I know like 20 words. That’s a lot if they’re the right words. I help people and don’t care I don’t know the language. I use the words I know and listen to them, have them repeat it and then sort of guess what they’re saying using the words they’re using that sound like words, sometimes like Latin roots, sometimes like words I may know, sometimes like English counterparts. I’m rarely right, but sometimes close. Then I gabble at them in my few Spanish words, hand motions, lots of smiles and examples of nearby things that may be close, and sometimes Latin root words that I know aren't Spanish but may be close enough for them to get. 

Surprisingly this works a LOT of times. It’s very funny for others to watch but is really appreciated by the person who speaks no English. It’s me trying to help them and obviously listening to them and not doing what all the other employees do, either walk away shaking their head saying they’re sorry or, worse, just talking louder and slower in English. 

Part of why it works is I know a LOT of words and roots. Manos I know is hands not because it sounds like hands and I may not be spelling it right, but because it sounds like the first part of manipulate or mandible and that has a root of hand so I guessed hands. I was right. Seriously. I got Manos as hands by Latin roots tonight helping a customer, they were holding their hands out but that wasn't clicking. I thought they were like holding something that wasn't there at first. We got through it. They needed lotion for dry skin and they work outside in the cold frijo, frio, friha, not sure how it’s spelled and their hands were dying from it. They needed a really strong lotion and what to do about it. So, I told them which lotion, and about wearing cotton socks over their hands at night. They said they would try it. I swear I’m a genius. I really am. I don’t get the credit I deserve. 

Then there was the lady with thinning hair who wanted Rogaine and how to use it. I figured it out, showed it to her, explained to her that using more wouldn’t make it more effective, just use un poco. mucho was just mucho denero, not mucho bueno. She totally got it. I'm positive no native speaker would say it that way but it worked. We were literally communicating with only like 20 words in common. 

I credit my success with having been the one who didn't speak the language. When I lived in Germany I didn't speak German at first and would try and get by with what I knew. My vocabulary grew over time until I was fluent enough to watch movies in German and enjoy them. But at first there was lots of pantomime and me learning how to learn to communicate and how to be patient and how helpful it can be to have someone just try... and how nice it was to find someone willing to be ignorant but willing to try and help... how it wasn't embarrassing if it was helpful.

So, to all those Americans out there, and I've done it, who say, "You're in America, learn English!" Yeah. I get it... but you know what? When it was me I didn't learn German overnight and I appreciated the hell out of those native speakers who tried to understand me and communicate with me while I did learn.

Helping people is what I do.

Once upon a job I was low-man on the totem pole and a customer came in very unhappy about something. I couldn't do anything both technically (I didn't have the know-how) or legally (I was specifically forbidden from doing aha needed done.) so I got the manager who, when he listened to her story which she got more and more upset retelling she was crying… he shifted his body back and forth to prevent other customers from seeing her upset. "He cared more about other people seeing he was upsetting me than about fixing what was upsetting me!" she said later.

I knew there was some sort of big-shot supervisor mucky-muck in the store and saw him so I dragged her over to near him where I recapped the problem and restated it all so he could hear it, realize it was precisely within his bailiwick and rush to the rescue! Surely he got promoted for his outstanding skill helping customers and thereby building company image. He finally wandered off and while I know he heard us, he stayed to eavesdrop, he did nothing.

Later the phone rang and I took the call when i got back from some errand or another the cashier said to me as I came in, "Can you take the call on line 2? The guy's really pissed about something." So, I dashed to the office to fix it. Finally! Something I could do something about! I couldn't. It was her husband calling to continue the complaint about something wrong. Not only that, the manager had left him on hold for 23 minutes, unwilling to take the call! I explained who I was, that I'd known her for longer than I'd worked at this location and I cared more about fixing the problem and helping her than anything else. I told the story both from her point of view and the company's, pointing out the points of commonality and what areas I could do something about and that I would. I assured him it wouldn't happen again as she had my full attention and I'd take care of it. He hung up mollified, perhaps satisfied that I was sincere when I said I had a good outcome as my goal as well. In any event, when we hung up after a seven minute phone call he was certain he and I were both on the same side. The super-duper-visor who'd heard the problem from the manager, eavesdropped on our conversation and done nothing had been in the room for the whole phone call he said, "You handled him well."

I said as I left the office to go talk to her again, "I didn't handle him. I helped him. Isn't that what we're supposed to do here?" The door clicked closed behind me and neither of us saw or spoke to each other the rest of his stay there.

Helping customers is why I like customer service. I like helping them. I don't like DOING it for them. If you come in to buy a bunch of stuff at my new job and don't have the coupons… I'm not going to go get them for you or just edit the price. You want the coupon? Bring me the coupon. I'll help though. If you need help I'll help. I like to help. I'm good at helping. I said something similar to the manager of the store in the past that this story is talking about and he said, "If you do that for everybody they'll want it for free." I said, "They get it for free. You don't. You pay me to help them and do it better than anybody else."

Helping people is, in the parlance of today, my brand. It's what I do. It's true from my last job and it's true at the jobs in between and it's true at my new job. I'm good at fixing problems. I like fixing problems. I like helping customers. What I don't like is management who doesn't know that they're in the job of helping customers.

Ever had a manager or boss who you thought was in completely the wrong line of work? What'd you do?

GTDAgenda.com

I was recently contacted by Dan from GTDAgenda.com and offered a chance to use their software to help with my Getting Things Done fetish. (If you haven't read Getting Things Done by David Allen stop reading this, go buy the book, and then come back. I'll wait here. Seriously. It's great.).

Now, I'm not one to turn up my nose at something free and when it comes to GTD fetish-apps I'm right there with the best of them at collecting them, trying them, using them, and then, typically moving back to my moleskin cahier and google tasks lists. One paper option and one mobile option. That works for me because, honestly, it's not often that I'm on the phone in front of my computer when I need to capture a To Do. So, I jot it down and then transcribe it later onto the computer if I haven't just done it to get it off my list.

I like my online option to include something that works from a keyboard for those times I'm transcribing from my notebook. It's just faster to type on a laptop than a phone keyboard for me. I also like my online option to have working check boxes on the phone and background syncing to the web app so that I can check stuff off as done and know it's done no matter where I look. My needs are pretty basic.

GTDAgenda.com gave me a year long membership and I said I'd review it. I think it's a little early for a review but the thing has potential. It's not there yet, and the mobile apps are very much embryonic at this stage, but I can see the potential there.

One thing that scares me about it is it's incredibly complicated compared to my previous way of doing things.  I imagine I'll get used to it as I use it but there's a learning curve here... a steep one at times. That being said, the contexts bit that it does is far and away better than the way I was doing things before. I like being able to sort my list by context. A context in this context is something like @At The Office, @Shopping, @On The Phone. That sort of thing. So, if I'm shopping I pull up that list and there's my stuff I need to do while shopping. If I'm at the desk and have some phone time available I pull up either my @At The Office context or, if I'm feeling phonogenic (Yeah, I made that word up I think) I'll grab my @On The Phone list and make some calls to knock things out. Really nicely organized.

There's a project function where I can break a project down into Next action items and even assign those next action items to a specific date/time, context, and project. Therein lies the complication part. The part where I can sort it all nicely is great, but it's an awful lot of entering information in at first. It felt like more work to type it in that it would be to do it. That is getting better as I get better at it. Some of the problem was I created tasks and THEN realized I hadn't assigned them contexts or projects so I had to go in and edit those. The way to do that wasn't something that just leapt out at me. I posted on the forums about it and had an answer really quickly and after seeing it I realize how that could have been obvious to someone (but not me).

The thing I'm most looking forward to getting on the mobile app (I have an android) is recurring goals with check marks that you can set to do daily, weekly, monthly, and a number of times that month. I have store checklists that I have to do at each store once a month. This is perfect for tracking that sort of thing. Currently it's not working on the app but is supposed to be on the mobile version of the website. I won't lie. I haven't looked. I don't want to use an app and a mobile site and a full-fledged laptop site. I want the app to do what the app does and not have a kludgy work around. I'm told it's on the board and is coming soon so until then I'll just use the notebook and jot it down and transcribe it into the GTDAgenda.com website later.

One of the things I'd like to see and doubt I will, is the ability to drag and drop things from one project to another or one context to another. It doesn't seem to be written in a language that encourages that sort of behavior. The Google Calendar integration isn't working for me at all yet. It's possible my two-factor authentication is buggering that up so don't hold that against it until you try it yourself. I almost didn't mention it.

I'm really enjoying learning the product and will, when it's ready for prime time, suggest you go buy it. They have an affiliate program but I've not joined it. Any links to GTDAgenda on this post are simple links. If you buy something from them, or subscribe to their site I won't make a nickle. Once I think they're ready for prime-time I'll re-review them and I'll probably use affiliate links for that. They're not there yet though IMO. Tantalizingly close, but not yet. Also, I wasn't paid to write this other than they did give me their product and asked that I review it. They didn't say I had to say good stuff and I suspect anybody there reading this is going to call me an ungrateful schmuck for not being more glowing in my review. It's close. It's just not there quite yet... and some of it is complicated to me. But it shows real promise.

There ARE affiliate links in here, those David Allen links will take you to amazon and if you buy from that link I stand to make a pfennig or two off it. I'm serious. If you haven't read Gettin Things Done yet, you should.

An Apology

I've been a District Manager of one sort or another since 2000. Yeah, 12 years with a year where I demoted myself to Store Manager (I didn't think of it as a demotion -- it remains my favorite job, but the cut in pay and responsibilities mean it must have been a demotion.), at the same job. In that time I've learned a lot but I still have a lot to learn. The thing about that, or perhaps more correctly this level of management is that I don't believe I'll ever really know it all.

Sadly, when I started at the position I thought I did. And that's what I'd like to apologize for. To all the employees I had when I first started the job, I'm sorry. In retrospect my direct reports, the store managers directly under me on the org chart all handled me a little differently.

My favorite was Al who, getting tired of me one day, sent me to get lunch when I volunteered to buy, at a restaurant about a million miles away. He later confessed he'd done it specifically to get me out of the store and out of his hair for as long as possible because I was being annoying that day. We laughed about that (after I got over myself and he told me about it) right up until he passed away. He was one of my favorite managers/employees. He taught me the most about my current job when I shut up and listened instead of talking all the time.

Another person, who felt I'd only gotten the job by kissing the ass of my boss at the time and also felt that he should have gotten the job, was less fun in the way he dealt with me. He mostly didn't like anything I did and I could tell... I would, instead of paying attention to him or giving him any credit at all, dig in my heels and be more obstinate and officious and annoying. He, to be honest, put up with my attitude better than I would have in his shoes. It was a situation where in real life had we not been in the work relationship we were, had we just met on the street I think we'd have been friends. He's a good guy. I was just green, and an ass and he's right... he could have done my job and while I, of course still think I should have gotten it... if I hadn't been in his way I'm sure it would have been his and he'd have deserved it.

At one point during my training as a supervisor of supervisors my trainer said to me, "You know what your problem is?" This was NOT an encouraging way to start a drive that would take us in a giant loop around Texas over the next week. He went on, "You talk too much." Later that night we both called the chief of operations for the company, the person who promoted me and delegated my training to him and we both complained that neither of us could work with the other. "He's arrogant, condescending, and you can't tell him anything!" We both said. It was years later, after we'd both became friends that we found out we'd both made the same call and we laughed. I'd said "I'm not arrogant. I'm right." He later agreed that while it was true I was often right I was too smug about it, too insistent on those around me knowing it and that was the problem. He agreed I was as good as I thought I was, but the way I handled it was what was so annoying to everybody around me. I took what he said to heart because I thought he too was good and I really respected his opinion.

So, here we are, years later, and I feel like I'm better at it than I was then. I hope I am at least, and to all those who suffered through the years I was learning, I'm sorry. Thank you for putting up with my being an ass.

Waking up...

Last week at work was a little... tiring. The hours were long and varied and unpredictable and that wears on a person. I was at a store that is perfectly staffed with 8 employees. There were 3 when the manager left for vacation (It wasn't a real one, it was unavoidable and personal... she couldn't stay to clean up the mess.). That's no good. Guess who gets to try and be the manager as well as the remaining 5 employees AND try and help crew morale because obviously they were overworked doing horrible shifts as well? Wait! I also needed to hire and train at least 4 people while being positive, energetic, excited, and all that other good stuff. Oops. I blew the secret. It was me. :) I'm back to my home store now and the manager's back. She returned to a full crew, trained (1 still in training but doing well) and things should be going well there. So, why am I scared to death they're going to spiral out of control without me there? I get attached to crews/employees when I work in a store that long and that closely and it's hard to let go. I'm also very protective of my employees.

So, I've been home two nights now in my own bed and have been completely unable to get up the energy to do anything. Even my daily writing (I write every day rain or shine whether I feel like it or not) was mostly things along the lines of "Dear God I'm tired. I can't think. My brain is pudding. I should go to sleep. I'd do better with some rest. Oh man... I haven't hit my goal yet... It's been an hour and I don't have a page written? This is horrible."

I'm pleased to say that today, this morning, I feel much better. I'm not physically exhausted or emotionally pooped. That's the thing about those long hours and days and days of being positive, optimistic, helpful, outgoing, cheerful, etc for hours after I should have been in bed day after day... that takes energy. I don't know what kind of energy but it's an energy. And the crew can tell if you're faking it so you have to mean it... and it's hard to fake meaning it so you really DO have to mean it... and that's exhausting. I said emotionally but I think I mean mentally. It's some numinous kind of energy that a Snickers bar won't fix for me. I'm an introvert in real life, I'm only extroverted at work, so to recharge my batteries I need a long time alone with a book and a hot beverage. Maybe a video game. But just me, nobody else, not even nearby, like on the couch or something. I've had that for a few days now. I think I'll make it.

Did I say Snickers bar? Yeah. Yesterday I started doing the Atkins diet. The thing is I don't know enough about it so I started it like this, "OK. I'm not sure how many carbs I can have so I'll just not eat any." My total carb count for the day when I got to the house and put my food in the computer was 12. That's low lol. So, today is going to be better. I'm allowed up to 20 as long as they're the right kind. I can do that. I've brought my lunch. I'll run home for dinner and then it's off to an art show at my favorite coffee shop... where I'll have a hot tea sans sweetener.

Just in case that's not enough I'm doing the quitting smoking again. I figure between the lack of soda, lack of sugar or processed foods, and hugely lower carb intake my smoking urges will be lost in the misery so why not? That kind of works out though because part of Atkins is some exercise daily and I don't want a cigarette after I do cardio so I'll just walk a lot, briskly. I haven't decided if I'm going to pick up running or not. I'm going to focus on getting good walks in first, that'll get me used to the time it takes to run. I'm tired of saying I'm going to be running and then I do a few times and then peter out. It leaves me feeling like a chronic failure. So, instead I'm going to walk. Walk first, run second. That's what happened last time. It got to where walking wasn't enough so I started running. Maybe it'll work this time. Maybe not. I just need to make sure I'm getting in some cardio. I feel better when I do and saying, "RUN" and then not just left me feeling disappointed in myself all the time.

But, I'm awake and I'm doing some positive things, probably too many at once, but I'm not pudding-brained any more so that's good.

On the road again...

Tomorrow I go back on the road for special project time for work. I used to do this sort of thing all the time. It was one of the favorite parts of my old job... The one I had before demoting myself to my current position.
 
I'm looking forward to it on the one hand... On the other I'm wondering what my store is going to look like when I get back. My assistant manager is good. He'll do a good job. My confidence in his abilities is fine. I worry a little if the other employees take advantage of him though. He's a "nice guy" and this will be his first time running a crew and store. Or, maybe when I'm gone he'll start reading Machiavelli and go all psycho on them? Sometimes it's hard to tell what will happen until it happens. My gut says it'll be fine.

I am most looking forward to how he feels about it afterwards. Excited? Ready for me to leave again or tell me not to take another vacation? This is the conversation I'm most looking forward to, that first day back debriefing. Very excited about that part.

Ran today...

Work was, for the past week, really busy. Then the weekend was even busier... Sentence fragments aside what I'm trying to say is that I didn't run this week until today... Friday.

That makes this week my worst running week since I started running back in September. I'm not proud of it, but the exercise I got while working, was OK, and the walking I got done while working counts some. I also got off the food tracking wagon over on sparkpeople.com so I gained 3 lbs over the past two weeks. I can fix that relatively quickly. I knew I was going off the plan, but work was really out of hand.

I'd planned to run outside today, but then the wind picked up and the temperature dropped and the snow started and it wasn't doable so I hit the treadmill back at SnapFitness and I did some alternating running and walking to get back into it again. It was good to run again. I felt much better afterewards and I'm glad I went.

I'll run again tomorrow morning, maybe even Sunday. None of the runs will be long runs or terribly fast runs, but I'm running again and glad of it.

Who was I kidding?

Yesterday started at 8am and ended at midnight... not just wandering around and lazing on the couch watching Survivor either... but working. I'd naively thought I'd feel like a run or walk or something the day after that. I also thought, rather insanely that I'd be able to. Well. I'm not.

It is safe to say that I won't be running again until possibly Sunday, but more probably Monday. I say it like that because Sunday's a travel day, and what with flights and driving and then family dinner by the time I have time to run I will have just eaten probably 1000 calories worth of carbs, gravy, cheese sauce, or some other belly bomb that will not contribute to feeling like moving, regardless of how much I SHOULD run after eating that.

So, I'm going to be quiet here over the next few days about actual running. I'll talk about other things as time presents itself... like now... but it won't be about a current run as there won't be any for a minute or two.