Efficiency Is Just Laziness With Better Branding
It’s restock day at the back of our large store, and we’re all knee-deep in boxes. Everyone’s hauling, scanning, logging SKUs, except [Coworker], who’s leaning against a shelf with a clipboard, checking his phone.
Me: “[Coworker], you planning to actually lift anything today?”
Other Coworker: “You’ve logged six items all morning. I sneezed and moved more product.”
Our coworker taps his pen against the clipboard. I’m simplifying what he says next for the sake of storytelling, but the gist is the same:
Coworker: “I set up a macro on the scanner app. It batch-logs everything by pallet barcode. Takes two minutes. Then I group-tag the entries and, bam, inventory updated.”
We all pause.
Other Coworker: “…You automated restock?”
Coworker: “Not all of it. Just the part that’s annoying.”
I check the system. Sure enough, His entire pallet is already logged and sorted. Meanwhile, we’re all still scanning boxes one by one like a chump.
Me: “You’re a lazy, smug little genius.”
Coworker: *Back on his phone.* “I don’t cut corners. I just refuse to walk the whole square.”
He eventually teaches us all his trick, on the condition that we don’t tell the managers. It’s been three months and we’re all now working at a much more reasonable pace every restock day!