THERE IS A HELL! - - - IT IS CALLED RETAIL THE WAREHOUSE | Page 4

THE WAREHOUSE
that working out for you folks, the ones doing the actual work in the warehouse and not
the tea drinking administration crew?
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with coaching, teamwork, empowerment, and selfdirected teams—that is, there’s nothing wrong with them provided they don’t get in the
way of effectively running a business. The problem is they often do get in the way. That’s
because once you adopt these feel-good concepts, you start to build a culture where
supervision and discipline are viewed negatively.
The truth is most managers do not like to supervise and discipline workers. This is normal,
and that’s not a bad thing. If they actually enjoyed bossing people around and disciplining
them, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to give them that power. But when you take
people that don’t particularly enjoy supervising and disciplining people, and add to that a
culture where empowerment and teamwork are supposed to solve all your problems, you
end up with a complete lack of supervision and accountability.

THE MISSING LINK

Supervision and accountability is the missing link because without them, your business
plans, policies, and procedures will not be followed. And things will gradually get worse.
I’m not saying this “may” happen, I’m saying this “will” happen.
Safety policies are a great example of this because this is an area where a lack of
supervision and accountability is so obvious, yet this situation is common in most
businesses. Why so common? Well, despite the big banner hanging on the wall that says
“Safety First”, it really isn’t. It’s not even second or third.
For example, let’s talk about lift truck safety. H&SE (or OSHA) requires lift truck operators
be trained and evaluated to ensure they understand how to safely operate the equipment.
And for the most part, companies do meet this minimum standard. Their lift truck
operators understand the safety policies related to operating a lift truck. Their supervisors
understand the safety policies related to operating a lift truck. Yet these policies are not
followed because the lift truck operators choose not to follow them and the supervisors
and managers choose not to enforce them. In my experience, this is the norm. I pretty
much expect that when I walk into a warehouse I will observe lift truck operators breaking
the rules in the presence of their supervisor.
When you look into workplace injuries and deaths, you will frequently find that the injury
or death resulted from a worker doing something he should not have been doing. And
while this is then usually blamed on the worker, I would say that in most cases it is more
likely the fault of management because it is very likely the unsafe act that caused the
injury or death was “allowed”. That is, it is unlikely this was the first time that unsafe act
occurred. More likely, this is an act that regularly occurred in the presence of managers
and supervisors, yet no action was taken. So who is really at fault here?
This same thing is happening with your other policies. You can do an excellent job of error
proofing your processes and training your workforce, but without supervision and
accountability, it will not mean a hell of a lot.
dodie ste®eo p®odu©tion ™

Page 4 of 9