NoxApex(N/A)
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I worked in that trade, as a warehouse manager.
I absolutely hated it, but I was able to better orchestrate my team by actually being in the mud working with them sotospeak.
Delegation is finite as a manager, if you really want your team to perform well you've gotta bounce around them a little bit and help them with the tasks you've given them.
This works because of 2 reasons:
1.) It shows them that you're purely about the operation and actively trying not to be an arrogant jackass by the willingness to get your hands dirty. Plus, it allows for a little personal conversation, lets you connect with your staff on a more humane level. If you task someone with a difficult task and they're not in the right mental headspace to be able to handle that task well, the result is going to be compromised. So from the managerial perspective of trying to get something accomplished it's best to humble yourself as a manager and remember that your staff is human too and to help them to help reduce risk to that potential compromise. Example: If Armando normally lifts 100 cases a drinks on the average day, but on a spike is tasked with lifting 150 drinks, if he didn't sleep well, eat well, or if he's depressed or angry, that increases the likelihood of him accidentally injuring himself with the overflow or over-delegation.
2.) It actually helps offset any accidental over-delegation that can happen, and this is important because it's very often an accidental oversight on managements part that they overtask their staff. Popping back a few minutes after walking away to check up on everyone else and maybe help them as well if they need it, helps iron out that wrinkle of a situation. It's always a lot easier to say "go do it" than it is to ACTUALLY do the task, and if you've got a manager actually worth a ****, they will learn that.
MOST of what made me hate that trade was the high volume of mathematical focus for a wholesale distribution operation. No scanners, EVERYTHING had to be manually double or triple counted before the deliveries could leave on route the following day. Which is fine if it's only a page or two of line items, but when the entire route is bulked and compressed into 7 or 8 pages of product with high numbers per line item, okay then yeah, that's a lot of math, and a lot of physical labor, basically in the last 2 or 3 hours of an otherwise 9-hour day.
The money and labor aren't bad when you're young, but as you get older, yeah, it kinda weighs on you, and there's high rotation rate in that industry because the pay isn't enough to cover basic living expenses as well as potential medical or healthcare coverage for emergency trips to the hospital for whatever reason should a likely on-site injury happen. Or to put it simply: You can only marginally afford your groceries and bills, and if you break a bone or accidentally lacerate yourself with a straight razor because the locking mechanism failed while you were opening boxes, you're going to be out of work for a while, and if you're not out of work for a while than you're spending out the ass on bandages, braces, antibiotics, or any additional extra that you have to deal with.
I switched out about 6 or 7 years ago into retail due to nerve damage in my lower back from years of heavy lifting. It was the most transferrable relative. The pay isn't as much, but the environment is better, it's less strenuous on me physically, and I have a much better relationship with my manager as a manager at my current job than in my former warehouse jobs. So it is true what's said: People don't quit jobs, they quit managers.
My former manager was abusive as Hell to the entire staff. My current manager, not so much. She can be a hardass at times, but nowhere near like the guy I used to work for who was a total loose cannon.
I absolutely hated it, but I was able to better orchestrate my team by actually being in the mud working with them sotospeak.
Delegation is finite as a manager, if you really want your team to perform well you've gotta bounce around them a little bit and help them with the tasks you've given them.
This works because of 2 reasons:
1.) It shows them that you're purely about the operation and actively trying not to be an arrogant jackass by the willingness to get your hands dirty. Plus, it allows for a little personal conversation, lets you connect with your staff on a more humane level. If you task someone with a difficult task and they're not in the right mental headspace to be able to handle that task well, the result is going to be compromised. So from the managerial perspective of trying to get something accomplished it's best to humble yourself as a manager and remember that your staff is human too and to help them to help reduce risk to that potential compromise. Example: If Armando normally lifts 100 cases a drinks on the average day, but on a spike is tasked with lifting 150 drinks, if he didn't sleep well, eat well, or if he's depressed or angry, that increases the likelihood of him accidentally injuring himself with the overflow or over-delegation.
2.) It actually helps offset any accidental over-delegation that can happen, and this is important because it's very often an accidental oversight on managements part that they overtask their staff. Popping back a few minutes after walking away to check up on everyone else and maybe help them as well if they need it, helps iron out that wrinkle of a situation. It's always a lot easier to say "go do it" than it is to ACTUALLY do the task, and if you've got a manager actually worth a ****, they will learn that.
MOST of what made me hate that trade was the high volume of mathematical focus for a wholesale distribution operation. No scanners, EVERYTHING had to be manually double or triple counted before the deliveries could leave on route the following day. Which is fine if it's only a page or two of line items, but when the entire route is bulked and compressed into 7 or 8 pages of product with high numbers per line item, okay then yeah, that's a lot of math, and a lot of physical labor, basically in the last 2 or 3 hours of an otherwise 9-hour day.
The money and labor aren't bad when you're young, but as you get older, yeah, it kinda weighs on you, and there's high rotation rate in that industry because the pay isn't enough to cover basic living expenses as well as potential medical or healthcare coverage for emergency trips to the hospital for whatever reason should a likely on-site injury happen. Or to put it simply: You can only marginally afford your groceries and bills, and if you break a bone or accidentally lacerate yourself with a straight razor because the locking mechanism failed while you were opening boxes, you're going to be out of work for a while, and if you're not out of work for a while than you're spending out the ass on bandages, braces, antibiotics, or any additional extra that you have to deal with.
I switched out about 6 or 7 years ago into retail due to nerve damage in my lower back from years of heavy lifting. It was the most transferrable relative. The pay isn't as much, but the environment is better, it's less strenuous on me physically, and I have a much better relationship with my manager as a manager at my current job than in my former warehouse jobs. So it is true what's said: People don't quit jobs, they quit managers.
My former manager was abusive as Hell to the entire staff. My current manager, not so much. She can be a hardass at times, but nowhere near like the guy I used to work for who was a total loose cannon.
