It’s amazing how many people don’t know their own addresses, and I didn’t realize just how bad it was until I started working in a job where I have to ship boxes every day.
Basically, I work in a custom book-making shop, and then we ship the books to whoever ordered them. So many people get their addresses wrong. So. Many.
But my favorite to date was this one order we got that wanted us to ship their books to “home”.
This morning, I leave for work ten minutes early so I can swing through the drive-thru of the pharmacy on the way and pick up my allergy medicine. The medicine I’m picking up does not require a prescription, but my doctor actually did a prescription anyway so that my insurance would pay for it. I got a text message last night that my prescription was ready.
I pull into the empty drive-thru and pull up to the window, and no one comes to help me. I press the call button, a voice says that they will be with me shortly, and no one comes to help me.
I wait five minutes and press the call button again, and no one comes to help me, or even answers this time.
I wait another five minutes, give up, and try to phone the store, and an employee finally comes to help me. I give her my name, birth date, and address so she can confirm my identity, and she scans my prescription, staples a receipt to it without telling me how much it is or asking whether I want to use the card on file, and sets it on the counter inside the window where I have no way of reaching it.
Employee: “The pharmacist will come give this to you.”
And she vanished before I could say anything.
I waited another seven minutes for the pharmacist to hand me the prescription that was already paid for, and, remember, did not actually require a prescription to purchase. I could see about half of the inside pharmacy counter from the drive-thru window, as well as most of the pharmacy waiting area, and there was exactly one other pharmacy customer.
Eventually, the pharmacist came to give me my medication, did not do anything that actually merits waiting for a pharmacist, and offered no explanation for the wait other than that he was on the phone with a doctor, which doesn’t explain why I had to wait for him in the first place.
As I had wasted an additional fifteen minutes on what should have been a two-minute stop, I was barely on time to work and had to rush to get myself clocked in and start working.
I was in a store looking at makeup, and some poor confused man stood there looking, too, for a while. Eventually, he turned to me.
Man: “What the heck is foundation, and where can I find it?”
I pointed him in the right direction.
Man: “Screw it.”
He just grabbed a random one. I’m sure his wife or girlfriend probably wasn’t happy with his choice. He didn’t even look at the different shades.
After seeing it work so well in another company, I decide we could do a lot worse than having a suggestion box on the wall. I let the other managers know that I plan to put it up, get clearance to offer a small incentive, and print out a load of blank suggestion slips.
As I’m filling up the box for the blank forms, a couple of the more challenging to manage staff members gather around.
Worker #1: “What’s that, then?”
Me: “It’s an employee suggestion box. If you think of anything that needs to be improved, write it down so we can consider it.”
Worker #2: “Like more money?”
Worker #3: “And more time off.”
Me: “You can suggest those things, but we are looking firstly for any improvement ideas — things that will make the job easier, faster, or more cost-effective.”
Worker #4: “Do we get paid for it?”
Me: “There is a gift certificate for ideas put forward that we take on. One per month.”
Worker #2: “Nah, do we get paid for putting suggestions in the box?”
Me: “You want to be paid to put ideas that make your job easier into a box? No. No, you won’t get paid for that.”
Worker #3: “Well, can we overtime for it?”
Me: “No. If you have an idea, put it in the box. If it gets chosen, you get a gift card. Plus, your job will be easier, take less time to do, or cost everyone less to do.”
Worker #4: “I’m not doing it, then.”
Me: “Suit yourselves.”
We get a lot of suggestions — some terrible, others not half bad. We manage to get a decent one every month and start making some real changes.
I never see the four workers put their suggestions in, yet they are the first to complain when their department isn’t getting money spent on it.
You literally can’t help some people.
The company spends a lot of money on an automated piece of equipment, designed specifically for this one job in this one company. To be accurate, it has to be cleaned after every use. Admittedly, that’s not ideal, but there is no other way possible to do so many checks in a dirty environment so quickly.
I helped with the implementation, the training material, and proving it worked. And it did; wipe it down, put it in the part, and press the green button, and it was foolproof.
Well, apart from the fools we hired.
I was called down as it “wasn’t working” to just clean it down and miraculously have it work fine an endless number of times. I ended up retraining everyone and making big colour pictures of how to clean it with the tools held next to the machine. Still, they couldn’t manage it. They did get a little better, though.
One night they called me, waking me up.
Worker: “The machine’s not working.”
Me: “Ugh, have you tried cleaning it?”
Worker: “Yeah, doesn’t work.”
Me: “It’s a ninety-minute drive. If I get there and clean it and it works, I’m going to be mad.”
Worker: “Hang on. Yeah, we definitely cleaned it.”
I got out of bed. It was 2:00 am and cold. I drove over there, grabbed the can of cleaner and a cloth, wiped down the machine, and pushed the green button. Voila, it worked.
By the time I had a go at the shift leader, it was too late to drive home. I slept in the car for a few hours and “came to work” again. I mainly complained to the shift leader’s boss before going home early.
I hated that job.
