Machinist’s Corner: New kid on the block

Remember when you were the new employee? You were probably taken around the workplace and told who does what. Your boss led you to your work area and, basically, told you to have at it. If you had any questions, you were to just ask them. In the end, you asked the individual closest to you about who to see regarding a particular question.

This approach seems to be the hard way of orienting a new employee. In the early days of my career, it happened quite often. However, one company in particular was different. On my first day, my supervisor did indeed introduce me to everyone. I spent the rest of the day getting oriented on my own. The next day, surprisingly, I began a full-length program of working with representatives of the various departments. I was scheduled for at least a full day in each of the following departments:

• Sales. I worked a couple of days with several sales reps.
• Procurement. I spent time with buyers who ordered from our parent company and purchased from other companies.
• Receiving. I watched the arrival of items our buyers had ordered a few days before.
• Warehousing. I worked a day in each of our four warehouses.
• Scheduling. I saw how our trucks were routed through the warehouses and for delivery.
• Delivery. I rode with an experienced truck driver for a day, delivering our customers.
• Customer service. As I watched, our customer service department actually initiated contact with the customers to see if we met their expectations. What a concept!

This orientation program gave me a good perspective on each group’s responsibilities and the issues group members had to overcome—as well as the successes that made them want to come to work. I learned how my position intertwined with theirs and what I could do to avoid making their jobs more difficult.