brought a bad cold back with me from Atlanta, Georgia last week, I hope my

voice isn’t too bad on the ears, I just didn’t want to miss the show this

week!  I’m Marty with Warehouse and

Operations as a Career, lets dig into today’s topics.  I want to talk about a little equipment in a

minute but like I mentioned I was out of town last week for a large hiring

event, so let’s start there.  I don’t get

to put on my Recruiting cap very often, a part of my job that I really

enjoy.  Anyway, I want to again voice

how, I feel anyway, we should prepare for our interviews.  This event was really driven by Facebook,

meaning there we’re no telephone interviews. 

That’s one of the big advantages of a job fair for us as

applicants.  As I mentioned this event

was really driven on Facebook.  So, ads

were sent out to all the job boards. 

Each one included the location, the dates and times, what the positions were,

and they all listed the pay for each one. 

Phone numbers were included in case someone wanted a little more

information before driving to the job fair. 

Most of the social media post suggested filling out an on-line app too

before your actual interview.  Now, I get

it.  Some people like using messenger or

commenting on social media.  It’s

important to realize though that the recruiters are hearing from hundreds of

people. People are calling the phone line for more info, a ton of applicants

applied online, there’s honestly no time to type out and answer questions

through Facebook.  I even saw a couple of

post where people were upset that no one had gotten back with them in like 2 hours.  Like we’ve said before, looking for work is

work itself.  If we have all the

information to make an informed decision on a position, it’s us, that has to go

sell ourselves to the prospective employer. 

I assure you there are 50 others that are going to do everything within

their control to get in front of that hiring agent.  I also saw a lot of replies that just said

info.  I understand what they were

asking, but everything the recruiter could have supplied was already in the

advertisements.  Quick story, all the ads

mentioned that the job fair started at 8 a.m., I actually showed up about a

quarter to 7 to get some things set up and there was a lady and a gentleman

already at the door.  I asked them if

they were there for the Job Fair, the lady said you bet, I wanted to be the

first in line.  The guy was laughing, he

said she was in the parking lot when he pulled up and she got out of the car

and beat him through the door.  One of

them was a little light on the experiences needed but you know what, the

recruiter hire’em based solely on their initiative. I guess what I’m trying to

say is, yes, finding a job is difficult sometimes, lets be sure we recognize it

and put the work into it.  It’s not the recruiter’s

responsibility to run us down.  It is

there responsibility to give us a chance, but we’ll need to get in front of

them for them to be able to do that!  And

I guess that’s all I wanted to point out about our job searches!

week I was getting caught up on some end of the year safety reporting and I ran

across an old supervisors investigation article.  A gentleman, I assume, had a warehouse

utility position.  His job did not require

using any kind of electric powered equipment at all, but he did have to use a

manual pallet jack daily, not often, but a few times a day just to move pallets

with trash bins on them.  His supervisor

had noted that over the last two months the employee had came to him and stated

that he wanted to learn and be certified to operate an electric rider

jack.  The supervisor wrote that he

explained he’d be happy to work with him when things slowed down but right now

there just wasn’t any extra equipment that he could use during his shift anyway

but that he’d train him when he could. 

Well, the gentleman needed to move a pallet and there was an electric

jack in his way.  He figured everyone was

at lunch, no one was around to help him, and he saw it as an excellent opportunity

to justify him moving it himself.  Now he

knew that he was not authorized to get on the jack, and he admitted that he had

been told to never even touch a piece of powered equipment until he had been

trained and certified to be on one.  The

temptation was just too much, I guess. 

He mounted the platform of the unit and rolled the throttle bar forward

to go only about 6 feet.  We all can

remember that feeling of losing our balance the first time we leaned forward

and gave that handle a little twist, right? 

Sure, enough he lost his balance and since he was leaning forward his

hand just twisted even further giving the jack even more momentum.  He ran the jack into a barrier doorway,

pinching his right hand between the handle and the concrete beside the door

jam.  He was lucky there wasn’t any permanent

damage, but he did bang his hand up pretty good.  He was out of work for like 12 days.  That’s 12 days of lost wages.  He had done something that was against the

rules, there was no grey area here.  He

could have really hurt himself or hurt an innocent bystander.  I guess this is where I’ll throw in my 29cfr1910.178

speech about never get on, operate or even touch a piece of powered industrial

equipment that you are not certified to be on. 

him for mentioning his desire to learn and operate the equipment, he was doing

everything right.  And his supervisor

probably should have worked with him a little sooner.  I think that as Sup’s we need to be upfront

with our employees, if we are going to work with someone regarding equipment

training let’s not leave them hanging, maybe he should have set a date for

training or been up front and just told him no. 

Either way the employee was in the wrong and it nearly cost him dearly! Let’s

not ever be that employee!

So, we’re in week 2 of 2019!  Do you have your goals and plans written down

on paper yet?  I just finished mine this

week.  I am going to stick to the plan

and I am going to measure my progress every Friday morning.  I’ve decided, based on my performance in

2018, that I’m going to set quarterly goals this year.  Don’t get me wrong, I did a pretty good job

with last years goals, but I figure only planning 13 weeks out I’ll have more

time for corrections to the plan if I need to swing off track for a week or

two!  I’d love to hear a little about

your plans.  If you’d like to share any

of those goals with us shoot me an email to [email protected].  And I hope you’ll like our Facebook feed and

follow us on Twitter using @whseandops. 

I hope my voice didn’t mess up todays episode, and I appreciate you

taking the time to visit us here at WAOC. 

Until next week, treat others with respect, treat your equipment with

respect and share a Safety thought with a co worker and a family member!