Work Harder, Not Smarter
A conversation with an OPS manager went something like this, “We should reorganize the warehouse racks so that the cases with the greatest velocity are at the top.” The reply: “Excuse me, but do you perhaps mean ‘mass’ or even ‘volume’?”
Their retort: “No, I mean velocity. Don’t insult my intelligence again.” The argument continued: “Okay, but none of these boxes are moving at the moment. Their velocity is 0 – across the board.”
It finished with: “You and I are going to talk with HR.” The same ops manager a couple of weeks later said: “What do you think you’re doing?” “Just moving boxes. It’s the only thing that we do in this warehouse.” The manager said: “You’re not on process.
One Best Way is that we pick up, label, then move one box at a time.” I said: “You’re saying that if I label 5 of these boxes, each of them less than 1lbs., then move them to this cart all at once, I will be performing my job at a slower pace than if I did each and every one individually?”
They said: “Yes. You are expected to be on process and this is the best process.” I replied: “I don’t quite see how the wasted energy of turning back and forth between the pallet and the cart more than necessary results in more efficient work. Could you give me a demonstration?”
They said, “No. It’s your job to move boxes, not mine.” Finally, I said: “I… Fine. In my honor, I will henceforth move every single box with the exact process you just detailed.”
A few days later he and my area manager pulled me aside because my production had dropped by 43%, which honestly is a testament to how hard I was trying to actually make his “process” work. Walmart is a horrible place to work. Story credit: Reddit / King_Sarathos