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b'Gosh here we are on episode 91 of Warehouse and Operations as a Career, and it looks like we\\u2019re winding down with the 2nd quarter already! I\\u2019m Marty and I thought we\\u2019d get caught up on a few of the questions you\\u2019ve sent in over the last 13 weeks or so. I hope everyone has had a safe and prosperous quarter and that all your planning is getting you to those goals we set at the beginning of the year. It\\u2019s been great hearing from you about the increases and promotions that\\u2019s came up this year, I\\u2019m excited to see all this advancement in the industry. I was thinking about a situation about 6 weeks ago about a gentleman that was working in a Utility position that wanted to know how he could learn something about equipment operation, he had his eyes on a pallet runner job that was going to come open after school was let out for the summer. He\\u2019d been with the company for about 8 months, he was sure to let me know that he had been on time for every scheduled shift and his boss knew he could be counted on any time she needed him. The facility was in the distribution arena so there was a lot of inbound product moving around each shift and they utilized pallet runners to move the product from the front dock after the Receivers had tagged it to the aisles for the forklifts to put the products away. He had experience with the manual jack but had never been giving the opportunity or training on the powered equipment. I hear this pretty frequently so I\\u2019d like to walk through how to go about becoming an operator, or one way I\\u2019ve encouraged individuals to pursue their goals.
\\nFirst off, and we talk about it often here at WAOC is we need to get noticed by our Lead or Supervisor. As we\\u2019ve learned that starts with being on time every day, have our proper PPE on and following all the rules. Another thing I find is helpful is to be that employee that is paying attention during start up or safety meetings, participating every chance we can too! As ironic as it sounds, if our name never crosses the boss\\u2019s desk I can assure he\\u2019s noticed us. Next we need to be sure he or she knows what our plan and goal is. If we haven\\u2019t told them we want to operate that pallet jack and that we want that runner position, let\\u2019s not get upset when we don\\u2019t get it!
\\nAnd here\\u2019s a great place for me to throw in my blah blah about operating powered industrial equipment. It\\u2019s a rule everywhere, no, not a rule but actually the law that we never, ever, get on, stand on, move or operate a piece of equipment that we\\u2019ve not been trained on and certified on, if that\\u2019s what your facility calls it, another words, know what we\\u2019re doing regarding its Safe operation in the environment we\\u2019re in. I prefer just saying do not even touch it until we\\u2019ve been through the 29cfr1910.178 training. That\\u2019s the OSHA reg here in the states but I\\u2019m certain every country has an agency that provides such a regulation or I hope they all do anyway!
\\nAnyway, I feel that our management team should know our goals and plan from our first day one the job. Everywhere I\\u2019ve ever worked and every new position I ever had I made sure my direct supervisor knew my intention was to be there every shift and be his or her best employee. The same holds true when we\\u2019re ready to advance.
\\nThis is where we should go to our boss and ask to see them for a few minutes. Point out that we\\u2019ve been in this position for about 8 months, let them know that we assume we\\u2019ve done a great job as we\\u2019ve never been coached about anything & if we have had a little coaching session that we corrected our behavior immediately. I honestly can\\u2019t recall a single situation where a coaching session has ever held anyone back, actually I feel when we\\u2019re coached or corrected correctly it can even make better employees out of us. Let them know that we\\u2019re ready to move into a runner position when one becomes available and that we\\u2019d like to have the opportunity to learn how to operate the electric rider jac...'