Sad Day...

Today I hand most of my staff their pink slips and bid them farewell. Some of these guys have worked for me for over six years. There are hard workers and not so hard workers amongst them, but they were always loyal and pulled up their boot straps when asked. It’s been an interesting ride managing this facility for the last six years. I will surely blog about it some more in the days to come as my last day approaches, but as this milestone arrives one of my personal most crowning accomplishments comes to bare: While the other four centers across the country experienced varying rates of turnover (warehouse staffs are notorious for high turnover) every one of my employees that I hired either stayed until today, or was promoted with my recommendation to another position within the company. How did I do it? Paid them a fair salary which included incentives, taught them how their role was vital to the company’s success, instilled in them ownership, and treated them with respect. If I had to offer someone a single piece of advice for running a successful operation it would be to make sure you hire good people, and just as important, keep them.

Unlike my last supervisory/management role when I was a much younger man, I was sucessful in finding a comfortable and manageable balance between work/personal relationship with these guys. I was discretionary when their wives got sick with cancer, when one went through a divorce, watched the younger ones get married, etc... At the same time, I knew when I had to be strict and protect the company’s interests. Together we buried a fellow employee, colleague, and good friend.

Together with these guys we created a world class distribution model for deploying wireless networks and saved our company more money than they will ever realize.

Now I have to hand them their severance packages and say goodbye. I am sad…