Trust me I’m all for education and brain power. I’m getting my Master’s degree right now. I’m even in favor of good management skills, something few few managers and business owners really have.
Today in a cultural diversity management class I explained that this is Florida, it’s a right to work state and your boss can fire you for being late to work even one time. I pointed out that my husband’s boss at the moving company yammers about all the reasons he could fire a person and how I couldn’t tolerate that from my boss on a continual basis. A fellow student replied and wrote to me and said this of my husband’s moving company job.
Now that I know the background I can definitely say I agree with you that these “tough as nails” bosses will fire someone at the drop of the dime because it does not take brains to move a family. Unfortunately, for leaders in our positions we are conditioned not only to enforce company policy but to have compassion for our employees and our families.
I got really pissed off and wrote back to him. I used to think it didn’t take “brains” to move a family. I now beg to differ. As a mover you must arrive at the job on time (ie: better use mapquest) and with all of your tools ready to go. The customer wants to pay someone else to do the job but they also want to dictate, manage and tell you what to do all day long.
It’s a job that requires a high level of customer service skills, tolerance for people, etc. Often my husband moves people that speak NO English. Try that one on….they are telling him to move a couch to a certain area…it can take 15 minutes more just to figure it all out with hand gestures and drawn pictures. He must explain paperwork, collect payment, explain moving insurance (what is covered and what is not) and get clearance from the customer to even touch their belongings.
He must then load all of a persons belongings into a truck to avoid duplicate trips, and yet not damage or break anything of the customers because customers really don’t like damaged belongings, especially antiques and things that are clearly not covered in the insurance. He must know about physics to know how best to pack a truck (there is a efficient and proper way and there is a every day Joe way).
Amazingly enough even to me most movers have their own abbreviated language for everything they do. I know from experience with my husband when we moved that “SET” means put a piece down to give your moving partner a chance to gain a better grip. Moving big pieces of furniture down a winding set of stairs can take upwards of ten minutes to properly plan and only 4 minutes of maneuvering…planning is key and often crucial. He has moved piano’s down 10 flights of spiral stairs with only one other person. His job does not entail brutal strength and no BRAINS. I used to think that myself. Oh moving…big deal…pick it up and put it somewhere else.
Not quite. There is a lot of planning, communication and customer service. It’s the only job I can really think of besides dentistry where your customer is yammering away (and even dentists resolve that problem) the entire time they hired you the professional to do the job they don’t want to do or can’t figure out how to do. My husband has women tell him all day long how to pick up a refrigerator and yet those women are the same one’s who have never in their life picked one up. They like to play director and yet if they knew how to move they’d move without paying him to do it.
My husband and I have the brains versus brute argument all the time. He tells me he has a strained shoulder and I complain about my aching brain neutrons or my tired mouse clicking finger or my carpal tunnel from too much keyboard typing at my office job.
However….I wouldn’t choose to put up with his customers for a minute. “Don’t scratch my hardwood floor but move that 1300 pound antique armoire across it and I don’t want to unpack anything inside of it..mmkay?” Oh and don’t mind the cat hair covering everything and oh my look at all the junk under the couch..don’t track that dirt all over my new condo or I’m going to be mad. While you’re at it, can you move that couch from that spot I told you about five minutes ago and put it over here on the south wall again, I want to decide which I like best”. Oh and don’t mind Fido’s dog shit all over the bedroom floor because you know I’m ignoring it so you should too. And can you please stand in here and take apart my bed, my dresser and my damn ping pong table too and then put it all back together in the new place. And don’t scratch it.
At the end of it all when the bill talleys up to $5,500 for a 12 hour all day move, the customer will then say “wow that’s crazy” yet they had 5 people in their house, two trucks loaded up and unloaded, and they sat in a chair smoking a cigarette while someone else packed up even their boxers and deodorant and 5 guy’s walked in and decided who was doing what and had a plan to get them moved from a 5,000 square foot house to a 3,5000 square foot condo in 12 hours.
Do you honestly think that’s all just brutal strength and requires no brains? Bosses at moving companies are strict because when you need to send 7 guys and someone doesn’t show up….the customer is NOT happy. I’m sure customers get mad and cancel an entire 5k job because a crew showed up at the customers house 3 minutes late. If you owned that company, wouldn’t you be just like my husband’s boss? He’s in a business and he needs people to d.y.d.j. Do your Damn job. If you’re job means being on time, then do it or lose it.
I too often focus in on structured organizations and how they do things. I focus in on the Googles and the Starbucks and the IBM’s and HP’s etc. But the reality is…these small businesses are more plentiful than the Googles and IBM’s of the world and this style or lack of management style is often what the real world copes with. I’m trying not to lose touch with people unlike myself. My husband and I are polar opposites. I would call my HR department if a boss ever talked to me like his does. Different industry..different circumstances.
Incidentally….every time we’ve personally moved, my husband somehow manages to move an entire household in 7 hours flat with minimal help. It’s not because of brute or speed. It’s because of critical thinking and planning. He has a plan and is efficient. That takes brains.
Did you know that you don’t pack what’s in the dresser drawers…you move them as is. You don’t pack up books, you shrink wrap the entire bookcase and make sure it’s weighted out properly on all sides and use a hand truck..etc.etc.etc. I could go on and on with all these boring details but it’s not brute like people think. Trust me the garbage man even has to use his brain to be efficient. You don’t know a job until you do it. Calling someone’s job a “brainless” task is really b.s.
