Beyond Your Office Door
“I thought you were my friend. I’ve already had a stroke on the job and now you’re trying to kill me.” It wasn’t the reaction I expected when I brought Tommy the wonderful news that he was getting a computer and access to the inventory system.
I was there as a consultant, making continuous improvement recommendations, looking at one procedure after another. I had been given a desk outside the Buyer’s office. Many times a day, Tommy would stand silently, slump-shouldered outside the office until the Buyers would finally yell profanities at him, demanding to know what he wanted. He needed the paperwork for an incoming shipment. While he patiently waited there, the receiving area was alive with his coworkers happily taking the parts they were waiting for from the incoming shipment. By the time Tommy got back to handle the paperwork with the delivery driver, half, if not all, of the shipment was missing. When he transferred it to the Inventory cage, he’d be short.
In a staff meeting, there were complaints about Tommy and his” inability” to get anything right. People were saying that he needed to be let go after more than 20 years with the company. I said that he needed access to the inventory system, so he didn’t have to leave his area. There was laughter around the room, “Tommy can’t operate a computer.” There was agreement that my suggestion was ridiculous. The new CFO/System Administrator was shocked. He was trying to figure out the reason for the discrepancies from his desk and had Auditors breathing down his back. He said, “There will be a computer out there tomorrow morning, get ready to train Tommy.” I hurried out to tell Tommy the good news. When he realized that he was never going to have to stand outside the Buyers’ door and be subjected to abuse again, he got it. The instructions were simple, printed in large letters on a single poster board above the computer. He had control of his area. You could see the change in him. He was able to love his job again.
It was the new COO who had brought me in, and he hadn’t seen the situation yet. That’s why he had me. So, how was it that this had gone on for years and no one fixed it? The CEO was not the kind of guy who went out on the shop floor. One Supervisor told me he had worked there for 35 years and could count on one hand the number of times the CEO had spoken to him. No one on the shop floor expected any improvement from new people in the front office. The front office had not been their friend for years. They weren’t rushing to share their opinions.
What might go on in your business that you can’t figure out if you don’t leave your office? What can you learn if you actually talk to your employees? How much does production improve if employees love their jobs?
