I haven’t been on a formal job interview in years. I do, however, conduct them occasionally. I prefer to do my hiring in other ways, for many reasons. I manage a depot for a trucking company. At any given time there are over 40 drivers working under me. I get about 90% of my drivers through word of mouth. It’s just better that way. Recently, a decision was made in my company to terminate a particular driver. This driver had been underperforming, not in any catastrophic way, just enough that it affected other aspects of the company. The truth is, I would have kept the person on and continued trying to make it work but higher-ups overruled me.
Let me back up a little bit here. For a long time my branch of the company concentrated on overnight, routed service. In other words, we delivered many small packages all over Long Island. We were not exactly printing money but we did all right. The niche we occupied was steady and our client base was solid. We were (and still are) growing at a regular rate. I utilized between 25 and 35 drivers at any given time and we had a minimal office staff, really only me and an assistant manager.
About 2 years ago that all changed. A large player in the delivery business was about to become defunct. This particular company served a specific clientele and was pretty much the only game in town for these industries that depended on it. They provided two way service for dentists and opticians as well as a decent amount of traditional trucking and courier work. These dental and optical clients demand a very involved and time-intensive service that they will not move away from. To compare this with what my company did is like comparing apples to toilet brushes. If you want to talk money, a single piece of freight with my company would command about twice the price from the customer with 40-50% of that being profit as opposed to 20-30% profit and three times the paperwork (and headache). Money is money, however and this company made a lot of it. We wanted to take over that niche when they went away.
We decided to start a new company, supported by, but independent of the parent company. We brought the head of the other company on board, along with his top staff. We held brainstorming sessions among our managers. We invested in a large, new facility in Brooklyn, along with a lot of new equipment. We arranged for a fleet of company vehicles (a huge leap for us). Money was spent almost everywhere. Personnel from the other company were emplaced within all of our facilities, except for one. None were placed in mine; we made do with what we had already. At the time, this seemed like a good thing. I am in charge of my office, I do things my way. Unfortunately, the clientele we were taking on were so needy, so demanding; we had to devote 90% of our time to 30% of our business. It was a fundamental change in the way I learned to do things.
I tell you all of this because it is important to this story that the drivers for the new company needed extensive training in order to get this job done right. By comparison, my original drivers had a relatively simple job. The main quality I look for is dependability. If I know what to expect from someone, I can teach him or her to do anything I need them to do. This was the problem with the driver that I was told to terminate. He couldn’t follow all of the procedures necessary to get the job done right.
As I said, it wasn’t my decision to let him go so I made a decision to do the things that the higher ups suggested, maybe they knew what they were doing. It was suggested that we put an ad in Newsday. I don’t usually do this because it is very expensive and I don’t think it’s worth it to hire one or two people. You have to sort through too many frogs before you get a prince. When someone answers an ad, you interview them and are told by them that they are the right person for the job. The problem with that is they are a complete stranger and it is up to you to decide what, if anything, you believe. Word of mouth is different because you are starting with someone who is recommended by someone you know already. That’s a big advantage.
Back to my anecdote: An ad was placed in Newsday, for 600 bucks. We took calls and scheduled interviews. We did interviews for three days. My immediate superior came out from Brooklyn to help conduct them. After the interviews were done, we made a decision. A retired NYPD, ex-marine, in his mid forties. We figured with his background, he would easily grasp the complicated procedures and have the discipline that I like in my people.
We asked him to start one week later, on a Monday. On the Friday before, I took the driver to be terminated into my office and broke the news to him. Not my favorite part of the job. Monday morning came around and where was my new driver? He was a no-show. We tried calling him but got no answer. OK, it happens. On to our second choice, a husband and wife team. They had good experience, came across as very on the ball and had a built in back-up if one of them needed a day off. We called them and asked them if they could start immediately. They were to come in on Tuesday morning. Tuesday came and once again, no-show. What the hell? We went to number three. This one I didn’t like so much. He had lots of experience, was very well spoken and seemed like a very intelligent guy. What I didn’t like was that he told us he was the best driver at his last job. This, in my mind is the surest sign of trouble. These people are going to start out feeling underappreciated. You are already their enemy. Anyway, he was the best candidate we had left so we went with him. We called him and asked him when he could start. He was eager to start immediately so we told him to be in at 8:30 Wednesday morning. He came in at 8:20 (one of my people told me he had been sitting in his truck for an hour in the parking lot, a good sign if you ask me) and I got him started filling out his contract and W-4. Afterwards I set him up with one of my utility people to begin showing him the ropes, with the intention of having a manager take over as soon as the morning freight had been sorted. After about 30 minutes I went to see how things were going, he wasn’t there. I was told he went out to the truck to get his phone. His truck was gone. He had taken off, fled the premises, made like a hockey stick, etc…
Was I in the Twilight Zone? What possesses someone to answer an ad, come in for a formal interview, get yourself hired and then not show up? It’s even worse that the last guy actually went as far as to come in and begin to be trained before making a hasty exit. A waste of my time? Hell, yeah! I decided to do things my way. I divided the route into two, more manageable halves. I then asked a trusted driver if he knew of anyone who might be interested in a route. I now have a driver I know starting on Tuesday. All I have left to do is fill the other half of the route, piece of cake.
My point in telling you this story, none. I just wanted to rant a little. Have a nice day.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Business in the front, party in the back.
Maybe I am getting old. All right, I am getting old. I took my kids to Chuck E Cheese for lunch today and realized that I am apparently one of the more conservative parents. Hell, I always prided myself as being one of the cool ones. I don’t know about buying beer for the high school party or taking my son to a brothel on his 16th birthday but certainly not a fuddy-duddy.
Firstly, I am surprised, nay shocked at the fashions imposed upon kids by their parents. Look, I know we all dress our kids how we want, not them, and for good reason. At first, they don’t know any better and later….well, they still don’t know any better. We all see the parents who give their kid the ridiculously out of style hairdo, these days it’s the mullet. For those who don’t know what it is a mullet is long in the back and short in the front. Depending on where you are from it’s called “Camaro hair”, “Hockey hair”, “Tennessee top hat”, “Kentucky waterfall” and my personal favorite, “The Missouri Compromise”. I had a mullet once, so did most of my friends. This was a long time ago when we thought they looked good. Now we know better. Imposing this on a kid who doesn’t know any better is cruel and unusual. My mom still has that picture of me from 1969 with the sweater vest, plaid pants and bowl haircut on her mantle. I cringe every time I pass it.
Another thing is jewelry. How much jewelry does a 2 year old need to wear? I saw a 3 or 4 year old boy with a huge diamond earring (more on this below), a gold chain that I could lock my bike up with and a shirt with a bikini-clad mock prostitute washing a car. I won’t get into the 10 year old girl with the thong showing. There was an infant girl, 6 or 8 months old, wearing 3, yes I said 3 gold chains on the outside of her little party dress. What the hell is that? Do children need to boost their self worth with flashy status symbols? I guess they do, the question is why.
As far as the little boys with earrings, I now see why my dad was so pissed at me when I came home with an earring at 15. It must have looked absolutely ridiculous. A 2 year old with an earring? Come on! What if your 10 year old wanted a tattoo? Should they get it? How many high school age kids get them now? A lot, that’s how many. I thought it was illegal to tattoo a kid under 18. In 20 years it will apparently be so accepted that people will take their 5 year old to a tattoo parlor to get a some “tribal” tattoo on their arm because they think it looks cool.
And don’t get me started with these kids and their crazy Rock and Roll music…….
Firstly, I am surprised, nay shocked at the fashions imposed upon kids by their parents. Look, I know we all dress our kids how we want, not them, and for good reason. At first, they don’t know any better and later….well, they still don’t know any better. We all see the parents who give their kid the ridiculously out of style hairdo, these days it’s the mullet. For those who don’t know what it is a mullet is long in the back and short in the front. Depending on where you are from it’s called “Camaro hair”, “Hockey hair”, “Tennessee top hat”, “Kentucky waterfall” and my personal favorite, “The Missouri Compromise”. I had a mullet once, so did most of my friends. This was a long time ago when we thought they looked good. Now we know better. Imposing this on a kid who doesn’t know any better is cruel and unusual. My mom still has that picture of me from 1969 with the sweater vest, plaid pants and bowl haircut on her mantle. I cringe every time I pass it.
Another thing is jewelry. How much jewelry does a 2 year old need to wear? I saw a 3 or 4 year old boy with a huge diamond earring (more on this below), a gold chain that I could lock my bike up with and a shirt with a bikini-clad mock prostitute washing a car. I won’t get into the 10 year old girl with the thong showing. There was an infant girl, 6 or 8 months old, wearing 3, yes I said 3 gold chains on the outside of her little party dress. What the hell is that? Do children need to boost their self worth with flashy status symbols? I guess they do, the question is why.
As far as the little boys with earrings, I now see why my dad was so pissed at me when I came home with an earring at 15. It must have looked absolutely ridiculous. A 2 year old with an earring? Come on! What if your 10 year old wanted a tattoo? Should they get it? How many high school age kids get them now? A lot, that’s how many. I thought it was illegal to tattoo a kid under 18. In 20 years it will apparently be so accepted that people will take their 5 year old to a tattoo parlor to get a some “tribal” tattoo on their arm because they think it looks cool.
And don’t get me started with these kids and their crazy Rock and Roll music…….
Holy crap, It's the future!
I was born in 1967. I grew up in the 70's and became an adult in the 80's. For any child it's hard to conceive how your life will be as an adult. I'll be 33 years old in the year 2000, that's like a million years from now. As a kid I thought that if it only took 66 years from the Wright brothers' first powered flight to Neil Armstrong putting his foot down on the Moon, then surely we were entering an age of spaceflight. When I grew up I thought it wouldn't be out of the question for me to get a job in space. Not exactly like "The Jetsons" but still pretty cool. The reality is that we reached a plateau and interest waned. The major players were too busy not blowing the crap out of each other to focus too much on spaceflight. Even the Shuttle, which was a great development, didn't reach the figurative heights it could have.My usual line is that when I was a kid I envisioned going to work in my flying car, wearing a silver jumpsuit and eating my meals in pill form. Obviously that's some 1950's vision of the future that is probably never going to happen. I am 39 years old and will probably live another 30 or 40 years if I am lucky. When I die my coffin will more than likely be transported in a gasoline powered hearse. My consciousness will, in all likelihood, not be downloaded into a computer so I can live on. My remains will probably be buried in the ground, not shot out into space. My grandchildren will do their homework with a pencil and paper. There will still be war, disease and hunger. The Mets will still break the hearts of the faithful every September. The Republicans and Democrats will still be the only two groups of idiots that we can choose from...You get my point, don't you? The Information age has just begun, the Space age may just be a memory. Did we drop the ball somewhere? Or is it right that we turn our rapidly shortening attention spans to other things for now. I want more "Holy Shit!" moments before I die, and not "Holy Shit! The World Trade Center was destroyed.". I mean more like "Holy Shit! The fall of Communism.". I want to see a cure for Cancer, a manned mission to another star (I know, I know...), A black, Jewish, gay, woman president....OK, that was just to see if you were still paying attention.Let's raise some scientists, engineers and mathematicians instead of more lawyers and accountants. Maybe things will be more interesting for our great-grandchildren.
May you live in interesting times
The title of this piece is a quote often attributed to Confucius and is meant as a curse. I see it differently. When I was a kid, in the 1970s, times were pretty interesting. There were wars being waged, both hot and cold. People were walking on the moon. Light beams were being used to communicate. Big hunks of metal were orbiting the Earth, reading our license plates. Interesting indeed!
As a matter of fact, times have been so interesting that we feel compelled to relive them at every opportunity.
During the 1970s the big nostalgia craze was the 50s. “Grease”, Sha Na Na, blah blah blah. It seemed natural because the Baby Boomers who were kids during the 50s were now adults and thinking about how much cooler it was back then. Boy, it was great. Postwar society was finding new and interesting things to amuse themselves with. Rock and Roll music, fast cars, economic prosperity after the hard times of the Depression and War years all transformed America as we knew it.
During the 80s the interest turned to the 60s. People started to realize that “all Men Are Created Equal” needed to be more than just a neat-o saying. And for that matter, what about “All Women”? Issues of class, race and gender were on everybody’s mind. So much so that eventually everybody was growing their hair, dropping Acid and running around naked. Or so I’ve heard.
The 60s were so interesting that they kept our interest into the 90s. It was at this time that we started obsessing about the 70s. Bad clothes, bad hair and a lot of bad music punctuated this decade. All of those drugged out hippies were getting jobs and starting families. They were becoming drugged out parents, businesspeople and politicians. The economy stank, we had missiles aimed at us at all times and we couldn’t figure out how to build a decent automobile.
Now it’s the 21st century and we are all waxing nostalgic about those wonderful 80s. Again, with the bad clothes, lame music and really bad hair. Remember driving around in your Chrysler K-car, listening to that awesome “Human League” tape with your girlfriend, (who was wearing designer jeans, a half-length leather jacket and enough Aqua-net to drown a rhino)? Those were the days, my friend.
I suppose we are lucky that these periods are so well defined and distinct from each other. Things changed so rapidly in the 20th Century that it was easy to look back on “The Good Old Days”. Things really were different back then. Do you think people in the 1820s used to say, “Boy, oh boy. Remember when that Whitney fella invented that Cotton Gin? Those 1790s sure were great”. I don’t think so. Things happen so fast now that there won’t be distinct time periods like in the 20th Century. Are things in 2002 a lot different than in 1992? Sure they are, but can you say when they changed? Change is a constant thing now. Technology and culture evolve constantly, and at a very rapid pace. Oh sure, there are defining moments. We just had one on September 11th. I know everyone will remember where they were on that day, like when JFK was shot or Pearl Harbor was bombed. Events like these serve as bookmarks in our memory. You can point to an event like that and say, aside from the inherent tragedy involved, “Remember when we thought the USA could isolate itself and stay out of the war?”, “Remember when we thought drugs were cool?” or “Remember when we thought parachute pants looked good?”. It seems like we lose a level of innocence each time.
Time is fleeting, and so is memory. We seize onto these memories in an attempt to reclaim the good feelings of happier, more carefree times. I suppose our children will say the same thing about the times we are living in now. They might look back in amusement at the time when they thought nose-rings were the hippest thing and a tattoo covering your entire arm sounded like a good idea. My 5 year old daughter thinks N-Sync is about as cool as girls in my day thought Shaun Cassidy was.
I guess what I am getting at is this: Yes, those were the good old days, but so are these. Wonderful things are happening in the world every day. Terrible things too. Be a part of the world. Experience what these interesting times have to offer. Some day you will appreciate even what you may consider now to be the worst of times. You will probably be telling your grandchildren someday that you were there when the Mets won the 1986 World Series, or how a Coke used to only cost a Dollar and gas was ONLY $1.49 per gallon. Imagine that!
As a matter of fact, times have been so interesting that we feel compelled to relive them at every opportunity.
During the 1970s the big nostalgia craze was the 50s. “Grease”, Sha Na Na, blah blah blah. It seemed natural because the Baby Boomers who were kids during the 50s were now adults and thinking about how much cooler it was back then. Boy, it was great. Postwar society was finding new and interesting things to amuse themselves with. Rock and Roll music, fast cars, economic prosperity after the hard times of the Depression and War years all transformed America as we knew it.
During the 80s the interest turned to the 60s. People started to realize that “all Men Are Created Equal” needed to be more than just a neat-o saying. And for that matter, what about “All Women”? Issues of class, race and gender were on everybody’s mind. So much so that eventually everybody was growing their hair, dropping Acid and running around naked. Or so I’ve heard.
The 60s were so interesting that they kept our interest into the 90s. It was at this time that we started obsessing about the 70s. Bad clothes, bad hair and a lot of bad music punctuated this decade. All of those drugged out hippies were getting jobs and starting families. They were becoming drugged out parents, businesspeople and politicians. The economy stank, we had missiles aimed at us at all times and we couldn’t figure out how to build a decent automobile.
Now it’s the 21st century and we are all waxing nostalgic about those wonderful 80s. Again, with the bad clothes, lame music and really bad hair. Remember driving around in your Chrysler K-car, listening to that awesome “Human League” tape with your girlfriend, (who was wearing designer jeans, a half-length leather jacket and enough Aqua-net to drown a rhino)? Those were the days, my friend.
I suppose we are lucky that these periods are so well defined and distinct from each other. Things changed so rapidly in the 20th Century that it was easy to look back on “The Good Old Days”. Things really were different back then. Do you think people in the 1820s used to say, “Boy, oh boy. Remember when that Whitney fella invented that Cotton Gin? Those 1790s sure were great”. I don’t think so. Things happen so fast now that there won’t be distinct time periods like in the 20th Century. Are things in 2002 a lot different than in 1992? Sure they are, but can you say when they changed? Change is a constant thing now. Technology and culture evolve constantly, and at a very rapid pace. Oh sure, there are defining moments. We just had one on September 11th. I know everyone will remember where they were on that day, like when JFK was shot or Pearl Harbor was bombed. Events like these serve as bookmarks in our memory. You can point to an event like that and say, aside from the inherent tragedy involved, “Remember when we thought the USA could isolate itself and stay out of the war?”, “Remember when we thought drugs were cool?” or “Remember when we thought parachute pants looked good?”. It seems like we lose a level of innocence each time.
Time is fleeting, and so is memory. We seize onto these memories in an attempt to reclaim the good feelings of happier, more carefree times. I suppose our children will say the same thing about the times we are living in now. They might look back in amusement at the time when they thought nose-rings were the hippest thing and a tattoo covering your entire arm sounded like a good idea. My 5 year old daughter thinks N-Sync is about as cool as girls in my day thought Shaun Cassidy was.
I guess what I am getting at is this: Yes, those were the good old days, but so are these. Wonderful things are happening in the world every day. Terrible things too. Be a part of the world. Experience what these interesting times have to offer. Some day you will appreciate even what you may consider now to be the worst of times. You will probably be telling your grandchildren someday that you were there when the Mets won the 1986 World Series, or how a Coke used to only cost a Dollar and gas was ONLY $1.49 per gallon. Imagine that!
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
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