Team

You know how I said I needed a handyman the other day? Well if Chris doesn’t watch out he might get that role. A bunch of stuff has been getting broken over the past few weeks. I can’t figure out if it’s because we have more people on board, or whether it’s just an illusion, the same number just multiplied by two trucks. Either way, there’s a ton of stuff coming out of commission.

Chris went at the water heaters, found a small silicone elbow that was broken, ordered a new one ($2.90), and replaced it. The operation involved going through a couple of security screws, and I’m guessing we voided the warranty. But now we have a working water heater without having to invest the $300 for a new one.

Ayr approached me and said I was at bat for my first blog post, and the topic was “Firing Employee’s.”  My first reaction was, no way I can do that.  Then it came to me that our blogs are all about honesty and facts, and that people need to witness as we grow our process on hiring and firing people.

My first week into managing the Dewey truck Ayr called me about firing a new employee who really wasn’t working out.  He asked me how I felt about doing it and I responded “well I don’t know if I’m very comfortable doing that.” He said “great, then you’re the perfect person to do it, call me when its done.”

I called this employee and told her she was not on the schedule next week, and that she didn’t fit the role we are looking for. Calling her at first I felt quite bad that this was going to be my first time firing someone in my managing career.  To be a great candidate on the Clover staff you need to be enthusiastic about food, willing to work hard, and willing to learn.  This employee wasn’t close to our standards. It wasn’t fair to her, and wouldn’t serve Clover, to keep her on.

The way I saw this experience is like swimming in the New England Ocean, scared of how cold it will be at first, but once your in, there is no looking back.  After the first employee was fired, there have been a few more we had to let go because simply their shoe just didn’t fit.

Once upon a time I was a summer associate at McKinsey and Company. For those of you who don’t know (I was in your camp 6 years ago) McKinsey is a somewhat, OK very, secretive company. They work with world leaders and business leaders. At one point they all wore easy to identify uniforms, sort of like the IBM salespeople. These days they’re wearing jeans and stuff and sitting on the greenway, much harder to spot!

I loved my time at McKinsey. I never expected to, but it surprised me. I’m not sure what I was doing there was important. Mostly I was helping big companies sell people more stuff they didn’t need in the first place. But I learned a ton and loved the people I worked alongside. This crew here are summer associates. We used to just call them “summers.” Blair, the guy gesturing, brought them by to have breakfast and say hi. Thanks guys, hope you enjoyed the food.

Hot weather + long days + lots of new hires = short term memory loss. Let me explain.

Some of you may have met Mary. She’s one of the folks we hired in the last couple of weeks at the MIT truck. She’s a really hard worker, and she’s adapted to the truck really well. In the past two weeks I’ve managed to call her at least five different names other than hers. She always responds to all of them, but after the 5th time calling her the wrong name, she just says, “It’s Mary,” with a smile.

I’ll get it right some day. Glad to have you on board, Mary! Keep up the hard work.

By the way, this is Chris. Expect some more posts from me in the coming weeks, especially on new hires, nutritionals, and operations at the MIT truck.