My First Day At Work

Ah my first day at a new job. You breathe in and inhale all of the possibilities. Everyone in your family is excited about your prospects at your new place of employment. Even your Mom said how proud she was about you landing work so you could provide as everyone should for your spouse and kids hairstyles for sims 4 for free.

You think to yourself, “I wonder what the company is like? Will they go over the company system of paperwork? Maybe show me how they want me to communicate with clients? Who knows? Maybe they’ll even throw a “Welcome to the Company” party for me englisch wörterbuch zum downloaden. The excitement is so great you can hardly sleep the night before your first day…

How does an opportunity like that, start with so much anticipation for great things to come by both the employee and the company, only to crash and burn in record time?

It reminds me of a story about a contractor who called me a few years back about a situation where he hired someone and told him to start on a Monday morning and within 60 minutes the new employee was gone without a trace spider solitär herunterladen. Vanished into thin air.  The owner of the company called me in a state of wonderment.  Was the guy recruited by a competitor?  Was he offered more money by someone else?  “What happened?” the owner who was obviously frustrated, wanted to know when he called me.

Every employee has a vision of great things to come for their career BEFORE they actually come to work. After all, do we ever start a new job thinking, “This place will probably suck!” Not at all. Every company is envisioned as a great place to work be fore we begin to work there and then REALITY happens… OUCH!

Why Did He Quit?

In the case of this company the newly hired Tech was promised that he would go through company training on his first day and then within 60 minutes, he turned in his keys and quit. The contractor, owner called me flabbergasted at this development. “Why did he quit without saying a word?” the contractor asked me. “He just left! What kind of person does that!”

Well if we can all assume that my description of the anticipation people have BEFORE they come to work for your company is correct, then the answer obviously lies within what happened on the first day.

I asked the contractor, “What did this tech do on the first day?” He told me that he he had scheduled training for the new hire but had an unexpected issue with his worker’s comp insurance company and was too busy to talk with the new guy. Therefore he skipped the planned morning training session. Instead he gave the newbie the keys to a truck that was recently occupied by a tech who was fired last week.

Technician Or Janitor?

He told him to clean it up and restock it. From that, I knew the answer was clear.  I asked the owner, “Did you ever get a new job where you were told to clean up somebody else’s mess on your first day?”

It was entirely the opposite of what he was told would happen on the first day. Instead of building his career, he was asked to do an autopsy of a truck that was trashed by an ex-employee who obviously was communicating his disrespect for the company by the condition he left the truck.

No there was no welcome party,  You can imagine what impression the condition of this truck left on the newly hired tech.  He probably thought that if a company can let a truck get this out of control to this degree, then it must not be a very good company. Rather then argue with the boss on the first day, it is simply easier to quit and go find a place to work that will honor their agreement to make me a service tech as promised, not a janitor.

Remember that when you first hire a new employee that the REAL training system is what this employee is observing in terms of how the company looks, how clean it looks and how organized it is. Basically when you tell an employee how important it is to be neat and clean and then fail to follow through with your actions on what your words have promised, it’s a let down. Walk the walk don’t just talk the talk.

Now let’s hear from you? What is your on-boarding process for newly hired employees?  Do you follow through on the promises you make during your job interviews? Where could you improve? Shre your thoughts in the comments below.

Addition by Subtraction

I recently spent a rainy Saturday afternoon watching a show called “Hoarding: Buried Alive.” I really didn’t have time to sit and watch TV but I couldn’t stop watching. Once I was able to get a peak into what looked like your everyday average person’s home I found I needed to see more, like watching a train wreck. 

The show takes you inside not only the home of an extreme hoarder but also their mind. They give you a peak at their compulsions to accumulate and store large quantities of what most of us would call junk, but to them are prized possessions. Although I have never been inside someone’s home as extreme as these, I have been to many contractor offices that I might nominate for the show was heißt computersprache downloaden. It really got me to thinking about part four of our eight part series on how to do addition by subtraction and create more space to organize your contracting office.

Admitting You Have a Problem

I suspect that most of us hoard at least a little bit, collecting or holding on to items that are probably not necessary or useful. For instance, I like to hang on to every piece of paper that comes my way for fear of possibly needing it down the line. Many contracting companies tend to hold on to certain items they feel may come in useful in the future, taking up valuable real estate within their compound and setting a poor example for current and prospective employees.

I’ve seen all sorts of things like old computer monitors, keyboards, phone systems, cell phones, pagers, letterhead and envelopes with old logos, expired marketing pieces, endless supplies of pens, markers, highlighters and sticky note pads and damaged parts and equipment that have been pulled out of customer’s homes with the good intention of “using it for future training purposes.” This is just the beginning teamviewer 12 gratis downloaden. I can not even tell you how much space is wasted by those of you in the HVAC industry storing sheet metal that you will never use. I’ve seen contractors build garages and warehouses, purchase used trailers and rent an offsite storage facility when they’ve run out of room to store these items. Is it really worth it?

If you are not sure if this is you, you should probably seek further help. I won’t be able to help you with this one blog post. For those of you who do realize that you have a problem letting go I have a few tips for you on how to start organizing your space so you can save time and money and reduce your stress and frustration levels.

Where Should You Start?

Start by determining which areas of your office you want to improve. Maybe your problem is paper like mine, or a clutter problem from parts and equipment being returned to the shop aktuellen internet exploreren. Or maybe it’s just a lack of knowledge not knowing how to properly dispose of certain items like office equipment or getting rid of tools that no longer work. Once you’ve decided which areas you want to attack first you can start to develop a process to get organized and stay there.

Next, use a sorting system to figure out what stays and what goes. This can be plastic bins or cardboard boxes. Or if you need something bigger maybe garbage cans or empty 55 gallon drums. You can even lay down tarps or blankets to sort items on. Now label each sorting area as follows: Stays, Garbage, Donate, and if you really need to, a Not Sure. Although I learned that with the Not Sure bin you need to give yourself a time limit to make a decision. Something like 48 hours so the items don’t end up just piling up again.

Once you have sorted through your first area and decided on the items you want to keep you need to decide where each item will go and label that space. You might be wondering why you need to label the space. I feel strongly that if this particular item that you are willing to give up valuable space on your shelves or in your office, and go through all the trouble of creating a system to keep from things getting cluttered again is not worth labeling, then it is probably not worth keeping. With this said, it you have an item that you only purchase once a year or so and is taking up space on the shelf, you may want to rethink whether or not to keep that item and go a different route.

Maybe you have an old outdated dot matrix printer (I’ve seen it in many a contractor offices out there) and you keep the paper and ink cartridges stored in your warehouse You may want to consider upgrading your printers. Try purchasing the same models, or at least brands, so that you can keep things orderly.

Or let’s say you have a CSR who likes to use a particular style pen to write with while the techs in the field are using a custom logo company pen. Well I say what’s good for one is good for all. Unless there is some physical reason for needing the comfort grip 5000 with automatic refilling ink wells and a leather holster, I can’t imagine why everyone can’t use the same thing. Next thing you know that CSR has left the company and now you need to upgrade to the 6000 model for the new CSR.

I can go on with example after example about how we purchase items that we don’t need and rarely use. You can substitute pens with staplers, scissors, markers, highlighters, sticky notes, company tools, uniforms, phones systems, software, and so on. If you are not willing to find a permanent space and label an item so it can be inventoried, then it is probably not worth keeping.

Develop Your System

Now that your area is neat and organized you need to develop a system for keeping it that way. I like to walk myself through the situation. Let’s say the problem is with UPS deliveries and boxes piling up around the front office. You might want to start by thinking about who should really be accepting these items. If you are getting deliveries for supplies or parts and have an inventory person or warehouse, then start by having all deliveries going to that person or place and not the front office.

Maybe you’re a small three man shop and you don’t have a person or warehouse, than think about whom and where it would be best to accept deliveries and start there. Have that person sort through items as they come in immediately and put the itmes in their proper labeled place. If that person has another job which takes precedence, then have them put them aside until the end of the day and take 15-30 minutes to sort and put each item away in its proper labeled space. Make it part of their job description on their priority list.

Maybe your problem is not with boxes but with paperwork from the field piling up. Start by taking yourself through your paperwork process. Who should techs be turning in tickets and paperwork to and how often? What should be included? Should it be paper clipped or stapled? What type of check in process is there? Do they just throw the tickets in the basket or is someone there to ask questions and give detailed information to? After turning the paperwork in what’s the next step? Does it go to accounting, dispatch, or customer service? What does each of these departments do with the paperwork? Is there a checks and balance system and how long before the paperwork is processed and put away? All this and more will need to be considered for each problem area in order to keep things running smoothly and from piling up again.

Document Your Process

Once you have the system figured out for keeping your contracting office neat and organized you need to document your system and keep it transparent. If you want to keep your systems ongoing as you lose certain employees and gain new ones you need to keep your process out in the open where everyone can see. When I say out in the open I mean “in your face” transparent with step by step instructions and pictures.

Think like a fast food restaurant where there is a sign saying “Line Starts Here.”  They usually also have a sign saying “Order Here” and “Pay Here” as if it were that difficult to figure out. Then there are huge blown up menus right in front of your eyes with all your choices along with another huge sign marked “Drink Fountain-Free Refills.” It’s hard to go wrong in a fast food restaurant.

Employees need the same thing when it comes to keeping your office organized. They have already been trained for years by other businesses to look for the signs on how to do things. Why not run with this concept?

Going Forward

De-cluttering your office with items you rarely or never use will give you more space for things better served, like maybe a training or lunch room for employees. Who knows? Maybe now you can have an office of your own instead of sharing with your manager or spouse.

Not only will your office look cleaner and neater, you will be able to attract and retain better employees who share the same values as you. These values extend throughout the field to technicians trucks and in customers homes. Remember the old phrase “monkey see monkey do?” If your employees see that you respect your office then they will want to fit in by respecting it also.

Pride yourself on placing value on a simplified environment with fewer things and you will never have to go through the process of de-cluttering your office again.