When I first began my blog, a friend of mine who has a successful blog of his own gave me a few pointers. First thing he said: Don’t mention people’s names. I am great and speaking in generalities, in fact I think my friends and co-workers find that to be a redeeming quality of mine (sarcasm). Second thing he said: Don’t talk about work. I am going to carefully break this rule by not breaking the first. No names will be mentioned to protect the innocent, and to protect me from getting yelled at by my co-workers.
I have been in management for almost two-and-a-half years. For the last eighteen months I have been head of a specific department. Working in the food service industry, most of our employees are entry-level. Most of our entry-level employees are teenagers. This is their first job. Not only is my job to get the most out of each employee, but a secondary aspect of the job is to teach them how to be an employee. The value of reliability. The willingness to cover a shift if you are able to. Learning how to handle yourself in stressful situations. These are responsibilities that fall on my shoulders. In a way, I am like a parent. I must be consistent in my praise, and equally as consistent in correcting behavior. I am a de-facto dad, or in less significant terms, a mentor. Less than a generation removed from being in their shoes, but in some instances completely clueless to their world.
I have been blessed with a great group of staff members, mostly teenage girls. They are competent, hard-working and display a great set of principles. My need to correct behavior has, for the most part been limited to work-related job functions. It could be as simple as “pay attention to our customers” to something much more complex in the case of training an employee on our cash register system. There are the few times in which I am asked to be counselor. There is the occasional calling in sick due to less than legitimate circumstances, or the I don’t understand my geometry homework, can you help me kinds of issues. Even during the times when my job is not very fun, I can see the rewards that come with it. I get to see girls mature and become young women before my eyes. I get to see them handle a situation with ease, when six months prior would have caused them to be paralyzed by fear. In this journey as a manager I get to see growth in people. It’s a really cool thing. What my staff may not realize is that they have taught me more about myself than they ever could think.
1. Trust is hard to obtain, but its even harder to keep
At times, there are situations in which a staff member brings information to my attention. This information may be of a sensitive nature. I have learned that my staff wants to trust me, therefore I have an obligation to them to keep confidences. When a staff member trusts me with important information and I keep my word, I gain so much more in return. I gain loyalty.
2. Honesty is ALWAYS the best policy
I write the schedule for twelve employees. Most of them want as many hours as possible. I only have a certain number of hours to give to each person. This means that some employees will draw the short end of the stick, so to speak. I try my best to make hours based on merit and availability. You work hard, I will reward you with more hours. It is difficult to tell someone why one employee gets three shifts this week while they only get one if it is not based on work performance. It is much easier to be honest. I have learned that people can tell when they are being lied to. People would rather be told the truth and have it hurt a little than be lied to and feel betrayed later. It works with teenagers just the same. Tell them the truth, and you would be surprised at how well they take it.
3. When I was a teenager, I was a HORRIBLE employee
I got my first job a month before my 17th birthday. I was stocking shelves at a national chain where you can buy almost any one item in the store for only four quarters. I was great at doing the bare minimum. I would do whatever it took to do the least amount of work possible. Calling in from work at the last-minute with a bogus excuse was the norm for me. Heck, I even got my boss to let me wear headphones during store hours, in front of customers. Looking back I know that they knew my excuses weren’t legit, and that they extended me grace when I really should not have received it. These girls have a work ethic I wished I had when I was their age.
4. I am 99% certain that I don’t know what cool is. I am 100% certain that I know I am not
I turn twenty-eight this upcoming august. I graduated high school in 2002. I am only eight to eleven years older than most of my staff. Those eight years feel more like eighty, culturally speaking. I don’t know what is cool in popular culture. I have been told there is a cool dance called The Dougie made famous by the Swag District of California or something along those lines. I haven’t heard of anyone on the iTunes top ten songs list, and my employees make sure to make fun of me for that. I don’t know what is hip anymore, and that is the way it is supposed to be. I am the nerdy boss that would rather explain low-pressure systems, talk about how awesome Oasis was, and complain about how auto-tune has ruined music forever.
5. I’ll be a better father for working with them
Being the oldest of three boys, my mom had it rough. No one to play dress-up with. No one to do any of the girly stuff that women do. Working with them has allowed me to understand, even if it is in the slightest, how girls think. With my training in psychology my first task is to understand why people do what they do. Being the boss of twelve teenage girls, I am beginning to understand what makes girls upset, what makes them happy, and some things in between. I have learned to be patient, and to look for minor victories as a way of encouragement. I have also learned that failure is good. Getting knocked down is essential to building perseverance. Seeing my staff persevere through difficult situations has taught me that the minor setbacks an employee faces are necessary for growth. I must take calculated risks, force them to think for themselves, and hope they don’t fall too hard to pick them back up. Girls are much stronger than they get credit for. It’s hard to be a boss, much in the same way it is exhaustively difficult to be a good parent. Working with these girls has helped me see what it takes to succeed in both.
I thank them for all they have taught me so far. My daughter, due in July, thanks them too.
The Swing Of Things 