Tag: Business

A Positronic Christmas

December 16, 2024

For almost five years I was with Positronic Industries.  Starting as a buyer, before the first anniversary a promotion to purchasing supervisor came through. One of my favorite things about that job was the feeling of the company being a family. Not all the employees felt that way, though.

One of my favorite things was the annual Christmas party. A Hawaiian luau, a western theme, and Silver Dollar City were some of the themes and venues that we were invited to with one special person in our lives. Many of my friends from that time are no longer there.

The reason that I enjoyed working for them was the people that I worked with and for. I would have liked to have retired from that position, but the crash of 2008 meant that many of us were laid off during 2009 and following. I have learned much from that experience.

One thing is not to take anything for granted. I continued my career with two other companies after that time. I retired as a purchasing manager. My ministry continued with each of these companies. Now I hope I can share some other things I’ve learned over my fifty years in business.

Managers and supervisors often believe that their job is to tell those that report to them what they need to do. A better way is to work with the team that you lead and utilize everyone’s talents and expertise to be better at what you are tasked to do. My experience has been that ideas and concepts flow from each employee in varied ways.

I worked for one boss that seemed to be constantly in fear that others would be deemed more suitable for their position. Instead of openly utilizing each person and their abilities, they dismissed valid ideas and changes in procedures. After a few weeks these same concepts were introduced as the manager’s brainchild. By this technic, they claimed these as their own.

I’ve seen this method utilized in church and community situations as well. I believe a lack of self-esteem is at the heart of this behavior. Refusing to give credit where it is due causes some to stop sharing their thoughts. Why contribute when someone else accepts the rewards?

Criticism for the sake of attacking others is one more common occurrence. I’ve seen this from employees to management and in the converse. If we do not feel that we are respected and appreciated, we may attack someone that we see as a threat to us. This does not promote a unified front.

Have you been on the receiving end of this type of abuse? Recognizing why it is taking place can contribute to eliminating this problem. It does not usually help to accuse the offender of this practice. I have left positions on more than one occasion when the owner or manager displayed objectional behaviors or a lack of confidence in me.

I’ve mentioned many negatives and would like to leave you with the qualities of the three best bosses I have had in my life. The owner at Dog ‘N Suds, my first job, recognized the value of each of his employees. If someone had difficulties with certain tasks, they were aided in those areas. He also recognized those who simply did not try to learn, and they were allowed to find other employment.

Tom saw something in me during our interview that made him offer me a sales position in an industry that I had no experience with. After a few months, he promoted me to a store manager, recommended me for a job under another manager, and for my first purchasing position. He saw what I could be and supported my growth.

I accepted another job for a man that I openly told his boss that I would be working to move into his role. I was honest and thought later that my words were ill chosen. I have always looked for improvement in myself and others. When I join a company or organization, I endeavor to work in any capacity that I can.

I enjoy a challenge and rarely shirk added responsibilities. Gary recognized this and trained me to take his place when he had an opportunity to advance. My retiring from the workforce as a purchasing manager was a direct result of his tutelage.

Hard work, dedication to expanding your horizons, and helping others advance is what a supervisor, manager, or owner should do. I could give you more personal examples of others that have exhibited these qualities to me over the years. Take a few moments and think of others that showed you qualities that you have gained in your life.

Christmas is a time of sharing and remembrance. People have made you who you are. Some by their positive actions, while others impacted us to be different from them. I hope that I am one of the former and not the latter. Merry Christmas to you all.

©Copyright 2024 by Charles Kensinger

Are you the reason people deal with your company?

September 29, 2024

That is an excellent question, isn’t it? Another difficult question is, “Do you cause people to stay or leave?” I have worked with both types of managers and fellow employees. In over forty years in business, I have seen managers chase away employees and customers.

One manager asked why I spent over thirty minutes dealing with one man that she referred to as “some farmer”. When I informed her that he was the maintenance foreman at one of our best customers she turned around and walked away. I saw another man throw a tray of food across the kitchen at a fast-food restaurant where I worked. He was the top manager at the company.

Salesmen that I know often tell their customers to ask for certain inside people that they know will give the customer the best service. Most people will wait for associates that take care of them. Time and again I see employees treat those who pay their salaries with disdain and rudeness.

The adage that “the customer is always right” has been changed to “Who do they think they are?”  If you have experienced any of these individuals, I hope that you contact management to make sure that they know what is happening in their businesses.

Sometimes management is a problem. Those in charge of a certain location may not correct employees because they do not care how they treat others. There are times when the best employees at a company leave these poorly managed organizations to join a manager that they have worked with before.

“The Peter Principle” by Laurence J. Peter and Raymund Hull was published in 1969 and made many of us aware of what companies often do. They promote good employees into supervisory or management positions where they eventually will fail. Not everyone who receives a new job at their current company is ineffective. Just a few.

I know employees who were truck drivers or warehousemen and became managers, salesmen, and executives who retired with coworkers praising them. I have also watched as these men and women were terminated because they could not accomplish their new tasks.

I have quit some jobs because of the managers I worked for. I have stayed at companies despite how the bosses treated me. I spent twenty years with a manager who chased off more good employees than I could count. I was the second in command. On several occasions, I was the one who made the decision that someone needed to be fired and was told that I would get to deliver the bad news.

I spent six years as an operations manager. With this company, an operations manager was normally a branch manager who was waiting to be transferred to another position or branch. In my case, they needed someone to run the branch while they dragged their feet and passed me over for the job.

When they gave the position to someone else, I found another job and moved back into purchasing where I was when I joined that company. I retired fifteen years later as a purchasing manager after working my way through three manufacturers that had all been customers for the previous twenty-five years.

Where is your career taking you? Do you enjoy what you do? Do not rule out moving to a new company or a new career. My experience in sales and management made me more effective in purchasing. You may want to change the sides of the desk like I did. Be willing to be flexible. Don’t forget to do something that you enjoy.

©Copyright 2024 by Charles Kensinger

Liking your job

January 20, 2024

My first job was as a fry cook at Dog ‘N Suds drive-in in Springfield, Missouri. It paid $1.25/hour. I loved it. Mr. and Mrs. Costello were the owners. Two of their three sons worked there also. They were still in school. I was a student at Hillcrest High School. This was the summer between my sophomore and junior years. Most of the other employees were or had been students at Central High School. We had a great time.

Within a few months, I was trained to do everything in the small kitchen. I learned to make root beer and cola syrups and place the containers on the drink fountains. I took orders from the speaker and even helped the carhops take orders out. I chopped tomatoes, lettuce, and onions. I closed some evenings and even came over during the school year and missed a class or two my senior year. New employees came and left. Between my freshman and sophomore year in college, I also left.

My Mom worked at the Zenith Television plant. She helped me get on. I had turned eighteen the previous summer and met the age requirement. I loved the pay. I hated the job. I was working on a final line. My job was to hang the tuner and put in three or four screws depending on the model going down the conveyor. If it had not been for my German vocabulary cards, I would have gone insane. It was dull boring work.

My first week I learned that I was not to help the people next to me on the line. There were two screws the person before me had to tighten. They were already installed. Sometimes the set was in front of me, and these bolts had not been torqued down. I was reprimanded when the supervisor caught me doing this after my job was done.

The screws I installed were the same size as the ones the next guy had to put in. He then hung something on them and tightened them down. When I picked up these screws from my bin, I might have two extra and thought it efficient to put them in when I had time. That was also a no-no. This was a union job. Each employee had their own job to do. You could not help each other. That was stupid to me.

At the end of the summer, I quit before I had to join the union and returned to college. I went to work at a restaurant as a busboy and dishwasher. The work was not hard. It also was not challenging. The pay was not as good as the factory, but I was back in classes.

The next fall I commuted thirty miles to college and the second semester I lived in a dormitory. I did not work my junior year and spent the summer working as a summer missionary in Pennsylvania. The pay was not much. I learned a great deal about Christian ministry. When I returned home, my fiancé and I started planning our spring wedding after graduating.

I took a job at a new fast-food chain that was opening. It was the first in the area. By the time I graduated, I was offered a job in the management trainee program. I took it and they moved us. I left because of problems with the management and worked several jobs before we returned to Springfield. I had worked in management at a convenience store, as a door-to-door salesman, and as a marketing director for a small company. These were added to my resume.

Back at home, I took a sales position at a retail pet store. I moved to another store as the manager and then left there to take a job for the wholesale company the owner had that supplied his stores and others in the area. I was the assistant livestock manager because I had read everything I could about the pets. When the purchasing agent left my two previous bosses recommended me for the job. They both told the owner that I could do anything they asked of me.

I have always enjoyed learning something new and taking on challenges. When I left there, I started as a parts distributor for the manufacturing industry. I was hired as the purchasing agent and became office manager, outside sales, inside sales, and ultimately operations manager. After twenty-five years I was passed over for the branch manager’s position.

My district supervisor described me as the best inside guy in the company. When I was operations manager, I worked both the office and in outside sales putting in eighty or more hours a week for the same money. For the first time in three years, we returned to making a profit for the company. I was rewarded by having a former employee re-hired and made my boss.

My next position was as a buyer for one of the companies that was a customer for the last twenty-five years. I was done with sales. I continued to work for manufacturers until I retired as purchasing manager. Each position had good and bad points and good and bad management and employees. There is no perfect job. Life is as good as you want to make it. That includes your work life. Learn all you can to be able to move to the next level. That may not be at your current company.

If your employer offers training through a local college or trade school, take advantage of it. Give the loyalty and hard work that is required for each new position. Do not stay any longer than you must when situations change from good to bad. Do not change jobs because someone has offered you more money.

There is a reason they want you and it may not be as advantageous a position as you think at first. Many coworkers over the years left the company we worked for only to return when they were terminated. I turned down jobs because God told me not to take them. Once I wanted a position so badly that I prayed for it not to be offered to me if it was not where I should be. They did not and I eventually found a better position.

I’ve been laid off, fired, and quit. I’ve lost jobs I liked and ones I hated. Bosses have liked me, hated me, abused me, and taken advantage of me. The one I have always tried to please is Jesus whom I call Lord. I work for Him and He has always had my back. That is the best advice I can give you about liking what you are doing. “Work as unto the Lord.” Colossians 3:23

©Copyright 2024 by Charles Kensinger

EMPLOYEE RETENTION

July 13, 2022

One of the greatest problems in the business world today is keeping qualified and trained employees.  This is not restricted to any industry or type of business.  It affects Food service, retail, wholesale, manufacturing, banking, and other service companies.  Before proceeding with this discussion, some terms need to be identified and parameters put in place.

An employee is someone who works for you.  For the purposes of this discussion, this includes hourly, salaried, commissioned, and contract-type workers.  Anyone that receives money from you or your company for products or services.  Admit that it costs money to retrain every person that works for you.  Even if you will not acknowledge this point, it does.

Qualified workers are those that will come to work, spend the full business day concentrating on your business, not their own, and not complain about everything that a customer or fellow employee does or says.  They are qualified to be productive and efficient and not waste time and money.

Training costs money.  The fast-food worker who fries the hamburgers has to be trained.  It may not take as much time and money as the machinist or the surgeon, but training is still needed.  Constantly replacing and training workers is an expense that cannot be eliminated.  However, it can often be reduced by keeping good people.

The main criteria for employee wages are, how much are they worth to you?  Many times, this is not determined when they approach you about leaving your company.  They have an offer from another firm and the pay is more to start than you currently provide them.  You should rarely have this kind of conversation with the people that you desire to retain.  I only left a company because they did not treat me properly. Those were not financial concerns. Only those that do not operate to your high standards should be looking or considering leaving.

What are some of the questions that need to be asked to determine what an employee is worth to your business?  Management or ownership may forget some of these factors.

What is the total cost to the company for this employee?  Wage, training, benefits, and other standard costs are often all that are thought of.  What about the cost associated with lost time, accidents, sick days, theft, and other intangibles that may be difficult to count?

Can this employee do more than he or she is currently responsible for?  When a worker is responsible for little, they may appear not to be worth as much as they could be.  What if this person was given the opportunity to be a lead worker, supervisor, or manager?  This can often be determined by trying them before promoting them.

My first position as a purchasing agent was on a six-month trial basis. My pay was not increased, and I was told I would receive an increase after the six-month period. I agreed to this. At the end of six months, the owner of the company that had made the agreement with me told me I would be given a pay raise as usual on my employment anniversary. I left there four weeks later for another purchasing agent position. I was with that company for twenty-five years.

This brings up the question, how much would my competition pay to get this person? I later met my old boss and his current Purchasing Agent. I had hired and trained that man.

Does this employee have training or knowledge that would be difficult or impossible to find in others?

Is there a way that raises and increases in benefits can be tied to increasing productivity?  This is done in sales and other professions.  Can you use it for office employees or other staff that normally do not receive incentive-based wages?

Are there values gained by working at your company that is not shown on the check stub?  Is your management staff easy to work for and with?  Do your workers think of their supervisors and bosses as friends or just the one that is always on them?  Are the communication lines wide open?  Can complaints and suggestions be made easily?

Remember the company I stayed at for twenty-five years? I began as PA and was promoted to inside sales, office manager, outside sales, and left as operations manager. My boss, the Branch Manager chased off many good people in the twenty years she held that position. I worked with her for twenty years. What would I have been able to accomplish if I had not been forced to leave after she died?

I managed people, documents, departments, and even branches. Over the decades I was chased away and terminated by many poor managers and owners. I asked for pay increases when they were promised and not given, and never threatened to leave. When I gave my notice, it was because I had not been treated as I should have been and already had another position.

My experience and talent were well rewarded when I left my long-time employer and returned to purchasing. I began as a buyer. Three months later I was promoted to Purchasing Supervisor. When I retired, my title was Purchasing Manager. I tell people that I have occupied both sides of the purchasing desk.

Answer each of the questions I have asked. Don’t assume that employees are leaving because the pay is low. Avoid the reputation of a company that matches other offers. Avoid rehiring former employees that left you for better pay. They almost always leave again when there is another better offer.

I had one employee that I rehired three different times. He was a hard worker and only wanted to work part-time. We laid him off each time because my boss thought someone else that would work full-time would be better at his job. This was never the case. I’ll talk more about my management philosophy in another column.

©Copyright 2022 by Charles Kensinger