simplerich

Today at work a customer I’d never seen before came in and we were talking.  He was from out-of-town and new to the area. We talked about what brought him here and he was telling me about his current business venture. Which got him talking about past ones.

Evidently at some point he had a business where his job was to empty apartments.(I remember where I’m being discrete.) In one job, a big one, he knew the guy doing the check writing. He was being paid by a big corporation, we’ll say it was MTV just to be interesting. Maybe they bought a block of buildings and needed them emptied so they could use them for something. Maybe he was being paid by container of crap he hauled out. Maybe his truck would hold 16 containers at a time full… but maybe they billed, say, MTV for FORTY per truck load and they split the money, this guy talking to me and the guy writing the checks.

He was bragging to me about more than double billing a company (It’s a sizable company) for the work he did. He paused expectantly. I sipped my green tea and looked at him. He made a sort of “enh? enh?” noise, looking for a response.

“Aren’t you glad I actually gave you what you paid for when you gave me the money? I suppose I could have defrauded you of half of what you’d paid for. But we don’t call that good business here in Iowa. We call it stealing.” I took another sip of tea, looking over the rim of my tea-cup and feeling like Wesley Crusher in that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Justice) where he said, “I’m with Star Fleet. We don’t lie.”)

“Yah, well, they’d under cut me. They’d paid less than was standard!” He said, defensively.

“You didn’t have to take the job. I’m not going to argue with you. If you want to brag about stealing that’s fine. It takes all types. Just don’t expect me to think it’s good or think I’ll ever do business with you. I’ll probably warn everybody I know to avoid you like the plague. Thank you for showing me your work truck out front when you got here. I’ll remember the name.”

“You can’t go slandering me!”

“I wouldn’t dream of telling them anything you haven’t told me yourself,” I indicated the three video cameras aimed at him and sipped more tea, “on camera where audio and video are being recorded.” I took another sip of tea while he pulled his pants up as if girding himself or gathering up his dignity. I’m not sure what all the belt tugging is supposed to do honestly, but he looked at me like I’d just called him an insulting name.

“It’s business. People do it all the time.”

“I’ve been in this business 16 years and not done it. You appear to not be in either that business or that state any more. One of us is doing things for the long-term and one of us isn’t.” I sipped my tea, “But seriously. I’m not arguing with you. I’m just not recommending you. Was there something I could help you find? I promise to charge you what’s on the price tag and not a penny more, other than tax.”

He left.

Now. I could have kept my mouth shut. I do that sometimes when people are being political I smile and nod and send them on their way. I do it when they’re talking sports… I didn’t want anybody in the store listening to him and me to think I agreed with that type of business and I sure as heck didn’t want him thinking I thought that sort of nonsense was OK. He was gross… and yes. I’m being judgmental.

I’m a store manager with no more authority than any other store manager out there. I work for a chain with around sixty stores in it so there’s sixty of us out here. I’m not a special little snowflake and I know it. Many of the people in the office have never known me as more than a store manager. Some of them know I used to be a bigger shot, but I’d say it’s about fifty-fifty these days when it comes to people knowing where I fit in the scheme of things.

We were setting up a store once upon a time and our technician needed a piece of paper from the office. I don’t remember what it was. It isn’t important what it was. The important part was he had been waiting for this paper for two days he said. He’d called his contact person and been told they didn’t have it someone else did so he left messages daily and called and waited and two days had gone by. Two days where he’d been unable to do his job. He really really needed that piece of paper. It was a map of some sort showing where things went.  When I got tired of watching him do nothing while I was busting my butt I finally asked, remember I’m a manager. There’s a much bigger shot on site, but I was the one that got tired of watching tech-guy spin his wheels.

Me: What’s up?
Tech: I can’t figure out who to ask for this thing and I have to have it. I’m wasting my time here without it.
Me: What’s it called? Who did you think had it?
Tech: Store layout schematic.  Mongo
Me: Grabbing cell phone and calling.
Tech: I’ve tried that. I keep asking for it, nobody knows who has it.
Me: I’m not asking.
ring ring
Contact Person: Hello.
Me: Hey Mongo. It’s Rich. I’m in Podunk and we need the map for Roy so he can get these things put up. Would you e-mail that to me before lunch so he can get going on this for me?
Contact Person: I don’t know if I have it.
Me: I know, but  you’re there and I’m here and I really need your help, could you track it down and e-mail it to me please? 
Contact Person: I’ll see what I can do.
Me: I knew you were the go-to-guy! I owe you a soda. I’ll let you know as soon as it arrives. 
Contact Person: Anytime.*click*
Tech: He told me he didn’t have it.
ten minutes later my phone alerts me I have an e-mail with attachment from Mongo.
Me: Dialing the phone to Contact Person: Thank you! It’s here and he’s off beavering away! Drinks are on me next time I’m at the office!

There’s no reason he should have done it for me instead of the tech. The tech’s bigger than me in the pecking order of things. I’m just some guy. But I asked like I had a reason for asking. I asked with an assumption it would be done and my asking was just a polite way of telling him what needed to happen. That part sounds jerky but it’s not jerky. The thing with being manager is if you have an employee you can tell them to do things or you can ask them to do things. It’s really the same thing when they’re in your chain of command and you’re higher than them. Polite requests are just politer orders. I learned that in the Navy. It’s still true in the real world. The trick, and it IS a trick… is to do it to someone above you.

We were doing a store setup and the person I was calling knows I’m “just a manager” but he also knows I’m on a special project at the request of the owner and CoO (Chief of Operations) that doesn’t happen by accident. The person I was talking to doesn’t know if I’m talking with the authority of a store manager or with some sort of weird temporary project manager authority by proxy from the CoO or the owner… he’s not sure. I’m an unknown. The tech is a known. He can back burner him all day long. As far as totem poles go the tech carries about as much weight as… well… not much weight. It’s safe to put off the tech in this situation. Me? I’m an unknown and for me to be talking as if I had authority… it is safer to assume I have it and do what I ask than to risk not doing it and finding out the CoO had me do the calling for him because he was busy.

Authority is so much perception by the people involved. Authority is a trick kind of. People will often let you have more than you do on the assumption that if you’re acting like you have it you must actually have it or someone else would have stopped you. Someone higher, for example. Nature abhors a vacuum and so do power structures and authority will expand to fill any gaps in a power structure. I’ve often done jobs that were above my pay grade by virtue of the fact that I saw they weren’t being done and they needed doing. I offer to help. I help. I expand my authority as far as it will go. It’s surprisingly rare that I get push back. Now, I’m not a pushy person by nature. But things need doing, and sometimes in businesses, in corporate structures, there’s inertia, there’s empire building, there are gate-keepers and there can be people working to make sure certain egos are stroked before the genie is released from the lamp… if you let those people have authority over you… if you submit to their pretend worlds you’re playing their game, and once you are submitting to them you can’t change it up later and be the one with authority over them.

I’m not saying that you should engage in power fights are outright wars… but mostly I ignore them when they don’t suit me. If someone decides to be a gate-keeper I go around them. I’ve got no problem ignoring chains of command if someone is trying to play silly buggers with me. I start by doing things the right way. But if I have someone pushing back for what I think is a stupid reason I will go around them. I don’t throw them under the bus. I just go to their boss and ask them the question I needed their subordinate to take care of for me. If they find themselves doing their subordinate’s job for them frequently… that’s something they can fix.

What’s the point of the post? Asking for something with your hat in your hand is only good for hat holding practice in my opinion. If you need something to do your job ask for it as if you’ve already gotten it and thank them for their help as you ask them. Ask for their help. Point out that you NEED their help. People like to feel helpful… but end the conversation with them knowing you’ll get back to them with a thank you as soon as you’ve gotten it… and then call to thank them. Even if it’s screened to voice-mail. They’ll recognize the implied, “And I’ll call back if I haven’t gotten it too” in there. It’s frequently easier to just make you go away by giving you want you want.

I got the call. I just got back from a special project week and now I’m going again. I had  a week back at my store. When the manager’s gone everybody’s schedule gets jerked around. Everybody takes on more work. Everybody feels it.

Hey all,

Last trip for a while, honest! I’ve been called back to that store I just left. Evidently they can’t find the pencils or something.

Thank you for holding it together for me while I was gone last week and thanks in advance for doing it next week as well. I appreciate the work you all do to keep things going well in my absence.

It makes me proud as a manager to have a crew that steps up and allows me to take a week off TWICE in a month to go do special projects… not just to go, but to not worry about our store. I know y’all will take care of the store, the customers, and each other while I’m gone for another week.

Thank all of you. It really means a lot to me!

Rich

So, they’ll all step up. They’ll all get more hours and more work and I think… when I get back… I think we’ll have a crew meeting as an excuse to all have pizza together so I can tell them what we learned at the new store. We? Yeah.

The COO (Chief of Operations) asked me and my assistant manager to go out and help. He’s there now so he ran my store last week, is working there this week and is running my store again next week lol. It’s good to be wanted but I bet he’s going to want a nap soon. I was thrilled when the COO asked for him by name. It’s a pretty big deal when someone three levels up knows who you are and wants you to come help and then shows up and works with you, side by side… for days. Yah. My assistant was thrilled. My boss was there and said he did really well so I’m beaming like a proud dad. I couldn’t be happier for him, not threatened by a competent assistant manager at all. It’s why I picked him!

A group of us sat around a picnic table after a long day of working together. Two of us were eating ice cream. Two were smoking. Easter was around the corner and Rhode Island was turning green as the last of the snows were melting out of the ditches and shadows. It was March and basketball was a huge topic of conversation. The Celtics were doing well and Rhode Island considers them their local team evidently. We had on light jackets and the sun was warm on our faces. We’d locked up the new store and met at the hotel before we were going to dinner at a diner that was reportedly amazing. (It was. Greek salads! nom nom nom!)

“How long have you worked with Mongo?” I asked the person who’d come up from our Connecticut store with Mongo (who was moving there to manage the new store we were opening.)

“He’s worked at the store as assistant manager for I think a year? Maybe a little over a year.”

“Were they a good assistant manager?” One of the people who’d come from our corporate office to help asked. At these store projects we try to bring a couple of people from corporate, get them out from behind their desk, let them help build a store from ground up (well, walls in), and meet and work with us field folks. It’s a morale thing… and important for them as well to know what we do and where we do it. We tend to get tunnel vision with our jobs.

My ears perked up as the person answered with alacrity, “Oh yes. I was thrilled when they promoted Mongo.” The speaker was the manager, we’ll call him Roy, who Mongo had worked for. So the speaker is the manager. Mongo is the assistant manager (Yes, we took the store’s entire management team to another store. There were other stores nearby and they were used to helping each other out.)

My eyebrow went up. “They promoted him? You didn’t get to pick your assistant?”

Roy looked at me like I’d burped out loud in a nice restaurant and then patted my belly and grinned. “No. I might only promote my friends. My supervisor picks who gets promoted.”

“Oh. That makes sense. So you tell him your choices and he picks then. I can see that.” I couldn’t, but I wasn’t about to say so.

“No. He picks.”

“Ah. But Mongo was good then.”

Roy nodded and lit another cigarette, “Way better than my last one. The last one was always after my job and out to prove something. Mongo’s not. He just does what he’s told and isn’t a threat at all.”

“What happened to the eager beaver go-getter so that you got Mongo?” I asked, morbidly fascinated.

“I finally ran him off. He’s running some store at the mall now.” He said with a slight grin.

I stared at the person from the office who quietly stared at a knothole in the table and licked her ice cream trying to catch her eye. I swear I could see her ears growing as she mentally tried to record all this for later. I died on the inside a little.

“Oh.”

“Well how would you like it if your employees were always after your job?” The manager asked, a little defensively.

“Well.” My boss shifted at the table and flicked her cigarette into the sand bucket. “I’m going to go to my room and we’ll meet here at 6:30 for dinner right?”

“I have two employees who want my job right now and I’m trying to find another one who wants it. The manager of one of my stores is sort of coasting and so is their store and I think it can grow more with someone with a little fire in their belly.”

“You want people who want your job?”

The office person was looking at me as I took a bite out of my ice cream cone… vanilla, from McDonalds. “Yes. If I’m not the best employee there they deserve it. If I don’t have someone pushing me from the bottom where’s my reason to get better? If I ever want to get a promotion or a transfer I have to be able to say I’ve got a line of replacements to choose from. If I only hire people worse than me I’m stuck… even worse… if they only hire worse than them it’s a spiral of death. It’ll kill a store. I want people who want my job because I might want my bosses job one day.” She was still there and heard it. Roy’s head snapped over to her for a reaction.

She shrugged. “The day he’s better than me he can have it. I think I’m better than he is so far.” She turned and went inside with a shrug.

Roy shook his head, “I don’t think that’s any way to run a business. It sounds cut throat. People jockeying for positions instead of settling into their jobs and doing them.”

The lady from the office inhaled to say something, closed her mouth. Ate some ice cream and pushed herself away from the table. “I’ll be back down in a few. I’m going to freshen up.” I said I was going to do the same and followed her in.

As we climbed the stairs, “You know that’s not how we do things don’t you?”

She said, “I know it’s not how the midwest is doing things. But wow… just wow.” She could say that because it was the midwest district supervisor who’d been there when I said I wanted her job.

“Yeah.”

“His takeaway from all that was that being good at your job and wanting to grow with the company is destructive?”

“Some people are just comfortable. They’ll never be great managers, but the doors will open on time and whatever you tell them to do will mostly get done.”

“Would you want him working for you?”

I laughed as she slid her keycard into the door. “The one I’m working to replace is just like that. I can’t stand it. I don’t mean everybody has to want my job… but the idea that they’d only hire someone worse than them? Ugh.” I shuddered.

“No kidding. See you in a few.”

So we went to dinner and any time anything like that came up again I talked about basketball. I don’t know anything about basketball but I don’t care about it at all so people’s opinions on it didn’t make me want to scream and run out of the room. I was a young supervisor when that happened. I had 5 stores and had had them for about a year. I’m not sure how that conversation would go today. I might try and make it into a coaching opportunity… but maybe not. I had another week working closely with them. Maybe I’d just keep my mouth shut to keep the peace and make sure their bosses knew.

None of those people are still with the company except the lady from the office and my boss. We’re a stronger company for it.

(My blog software tells me that my use of the word “lady” here is bias language. It was a female human being who was there from the office and since she’s still with us I didn’t feel I should use her name… so, I didn’t. What should I have called her if not lady? She is and was a lady.)

Over on my personal blog I mentioned I was not only back from Lincoln, but gave a few of the notes I’d taken of things to remind me to blog about when I got back. Some aren’t going to be long enough for a whole blog by themselves and some are… well… some may need two. They’re at the rolling around in my head stage of development right now.

It was nice to go back to doing my old job for a week. The setting up the new store was nice and the working with a new manager was nice. The store wasn’t open so a lot of the training opportunities I’d have had in that sort of situation didn’t present themselves as I’d like them to have. There were chances to teach though. At one point when the employee was upset about something that affected her personally… a mistake that’d been made (and rapidly fixed!) I managed to turn that into a teaching opportunity as well. Whether or not the new-manager turned it into a learning opportunity or not is another matter. That was one of the things we talked about believe it or not.

The days were long, and the work was hard. It was hot out and some of the work took me outside long enough to work up a good sweat… which is unfortunate. But the heat and work meant that no matter what I ate, within reason, I didn’t gain any weight… and believe me. When eating on the road and on expense account AND with a bunch of other people (who are NOT watching what they eat) it’s easy to go off-plan.

I think my first blog post will hit tomorrow and will be on a topic not mentioned over at the other site, but hinted at here in this post. Glad to be home. Looking forward to the next time I get to go help out on a special project. It was fun.