It All Makes Sense Now

Last Monday my coworker and I had a conversation that went like this:

Coworker: "What's up with X?"
Me: "Huh?"
Coworker: "He gave notice"
Me: "Huh?"

X of is one of our warehouse associates, a nephew of one of our employees, and the cousin of yet another. He's only been with us a little over a year. That day he had turned in a handwritten resignation note saying he was resigning for personal reasons and his last day would be this Friday. We were completely shocked.

I went back to try to get some scoop from him, but he just said it was time to do something different. I then jokingly asked one of his coworkers "What did you do to X?". The coworker let it spill. He said X said his plan was to quit this (full time with benefits) job to work part time at Best Buy and then maybe go into the Army. Apparently X has some outstanding student loans, and he'll be able to defer them while he's in the Army (of course, you still have to pay them when you get out. There are two ways to get rid of student loans- pay them off or die).

This seemed like a questionable plan to me, but as my coworker said, X is young and factory work isn't for him. I get that. X can also be spacey at times, so I chalked it up to that.

Well, now the situation suddenly makes a great deal more sense. My coworker said today that she heard that X had apparently gone out a few times with Y, one of our young female employees. It seems that Y is now going out with Z, another young male employee, and X saw them together Friday night which put him over the edge I guess. He then called his supervisor at midnight that night to resign. While perhaps not the best reason to make what appears to be a rash occupational decision, this seems like a better explanation to me.

The Truth Can Be Hard To Determine When Butt Covering Is On the Agenda

A couple Saturdays ago my company made the local evening news. As you may deduce from the title of this post, it was not for some warm, fuzzy reason. We had a tank of raw material overheat, leaking horrible smelling fumes into the air. The fire department was there, and eventually the HazMat team from the large city nearby. The public was in no danger, but one of our associates came in contact with toxic vapors and briefly lost consciousness. Thankfully he is fine with no ill effects.

When I came to work on Monday and heard about this, I thought to myself "the butt covering has already begun". Did I have any evidence of this? No, but I could just tell. This was later confirmed by things people told me or wouldn't tell me.

Today it was confirmed again. I heard a detail that I consider very important but that I have not seen in either of the "official" reports I read. I don't think necessarily that anyone did anything maliciously wrong. As I told someone, you never have a 20/20 view during the event. It's easy after the fact to question people's actions, but during a crisis you simply do the best you can. However, when things start not appearing in official reports or people are reluctant to talk, the truth can be sacrificed. This is very dangerous if you are truly trying to understand what happened and implement appropriate countermeasures.

100K

Yesterday my car hit 100,000 miles. I took pictures to commemorate the event.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I've had this car for over 9 years now. When I bought it, my goal was to drive for it 6 years. Later it became 8, and now I'm hoping for at least 12. I've heard that years ago a car was shot at 50,000 miles. My car has been so good. I just put the first battery in it this summer, and I've only had one repair of around $150 the entire time I've owned it. I am very blessed.

There Is Nothing New Under the Sun

Some of you may recognize this line from the Ecclesiastes. The entire verse is as follows:

Ecclesiastes 1:9

New International Version (NIV)

⁹ What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

I was reminded of this verse while visiting the Mel Fisher Museum in Key West. For those of you who don't know, Mel was a treasurer hunter who spent more than a decade and a half looking for the Atocha, a Spanish ship rich in cargo that sunk off the Keys in 1622.

Two things not new under the sun since that time
- Tax evasion: Items were found in the wreck that did not appear on the manifest. People were attempting to smuggle them in so they didn't have to pay taxes on them.

- Conspicuous consumption: It was fashionable at the time for both men and women to wear extremely long gold chains across the body to show how wealthy they were. They also would snip off pieces of the chain and use them as currency.

Yes, nothing new under the sun.

What a difference 90 miles makes

I recently visited Key West, Florida for the first time. As you may know, Cuba is only 90 miles from there, closer than Miami. I was struck by what a difference that 90 miles makes. Here I was in a place known for leisure, fun, and laid back lifestyle. Ninety miles away people are living under a dictatorship and in poverty in many cases. How blessed I am to have been on this side of the 90 mile divide.

Study: 1 in 25 Business Leaders May Be Psychopaths

This is the title of a recent article by Time Magazine. It was forwarded to me by my boss (head of HR) and to him by another manager. My first thought was that number had to be on the high side. After reading the article, I think it might be low, at least at my organization. I bet some faces from where you work (or places you've worked before) came to mind. My favorite quote in the whole article?

"They also tend to be charming and manipulative — and in corporate America, that easily passes for leadership."

That is so true. How often do you see true leadership in your company? I tried to think of one example from where I work, and I couldn't for a long while. I finally did though. It is probably the experience that has made me the most proud to work for my employer. Sad, though, that I can only come up with 1 in 11 years.

There article also has a link to a list of Top 10 Worst Bosses. It's definitely worth a read.

And Another One Gone

We've had several people quit this year. In fact, our turnover rate is on track to be the highest it's been in years. Here's one of my favorite ones thus far.

"Mike" started last November as a temporary. It's been back and forth for months if we were going to hire him, mostly because he wanted more money than what we typically pay someone in that job. Finally in August an agreement was reached, and he started as our employee. He went through new employee orientation in September, then quit with no notice the next week. He said he got a six figure job offer (WAY more than we were paying him, as in multiple times), and they wanted him to start immediately. His former supervisor was of course not pleased. I talked to one of his former coworkers who said "well, that's why he missed all those days. He was interviewing." I hadn't heard he'd missed several days, but since he was a temp, I likely wouldn't. I found the situation quite funny personally.