The Quality Of Life Podcast

Lessons Learned From Getting a JOB.

• Erin Olson • Season 2 • Episode 19

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Stepping out of the familiar terrain of self-employment, I, Erin Olson, found myself back in "Employee-Land" after years of running my own show for over 15 years. This week, I share the revelations gleaned from my stint as a beverage cart girl and a golf pro shop attendant; an experience that bestowed upon me a wealth of knowledge and perspective that could redefine the way you approach business and team management.

I explore the nuances of adapting to employee life and how this can profoundly impact leadership strategies. We'll tackle the differences in work ethic, the magic of effective meetings, and the transformative potential of leading by example. Grasp the importance of an ever-present task list and explore how tools like Basecamp can keep a team in sync. For entrepreneurs and corporate aspirants alike, my reflections offer actionable insights that promise to refine your management style and elevate your professional endeavors.

And yes, I realize there are 2 lesson #2s. 🤦‍♀️

Resources:
Basecamp
Death By Meeting book by Pat Lencioni

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See ya next week!
Erin

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Quality of Life podcast. I'm Erin Olson, a wife, a mother and a serial entrepreneur. After starting three successful businesses, I've learned some hard lessons regarding the ins and the outs of starting and running a small business. My intention is to share my knowledge that I've learned from the School of Hard Knocks so you don't have to learn it the hard way like I did Each week, I hope, to guide you to the next level in your business, or in the business that you work in. So let's go. Hey guys, welcome back to the Quality of Life podcast. Erin Olson here to help you get from business idea to big business. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Speaker 1:

So this episode is a special one, and here's why I have a confession to make. Guys, I got a job, a J-O-B job. Now, I don't know why this feels like it should be secret or is scandalous, but, with all transparency, this is the first time I have worked for someone other than myself since 2008. That's a minute, and let me tell you I learned so much from this little experiment that I think you might want to look into getting a job too. All right, so my husband and I live in South Central Florida for most of the year and we bought a new home last fall. I am so excited to call Florida home. It was in a brand new neighborhood and we didn't know very many people, just a couple neighbors, and that was it. So I decided to look on Indeed to see if anybody locally needed some help, because I needed to meet new people, and I saw that there was a brand new golf course hiring for a beverage cart girl. How fun would that be, driving a mobile bar around a beautiful golf course spreading happiness. I'm your girl for that right. So I applied. Having bartended for many, many years, I was hired to work just a couple days a week and maybe help in the pro shop too, and what a great and eye-opening experience. It's so weird to start working for someone else, let alone a big corporation, after being self-employed for over 15 years. But I learned some things that all business owners might need a refresher in too. So here is what I learned as an employee. First of all, a disclaimer my perspective is completely different than most employees, kind of like when you realize that all the stuff by the registers at the grocery stores usually have the highest markup of anything in the store. Once you know you can't unknow, and then you're usually immune to whatever tactics they use. Right, and once you know what it's like to run a business and lead a team, you will never be able to see things from a typical employee's view again. So if you do take my recommendation of getting a part-time job, be forewarned. Okay, now back to the lessons that I learned.

Speaker 1:

Lesson number one being flexible as an employee. When I was asked if I would be open to working in the pro shop, I said I could do whatever they needed me to do. So even though I knew very little about golf and even less on how to play it correctly, I ended up being in the pro shop the most. This was not what I was hired to do, but as an employer, I have moved and shuffled people around too, but as an employee, if I'm honest, it kind of sucked. So as a leader now I would be more conscious to how the new position is sold to the employee. Oh, and you need to remember that just because somebody is good at something doesn't mean they like it.

Speaker 1:

Lesson number two communication. Wow, wow, some major revelations going on here. You know that old saying what we have here is a failure to communicate. You know I have been guilty myself. See, back in the early days of running a company and leading a team, I used to lock myself in my office, really only coming out to put out fires or use the bathroom, and I bet that there are a few people listening here who have or are in that same spot. I had such a hard time expressing my concerns and my visions with my team and I didn't want anyone knowing too much about the state of the business. I was pretty much making it up as I went along, but what I found was that this huge corporation, this golf course, had something pretty similar going on. The open door policy was not always open Anytime I needed something. They were so eager to listen, but just having that door closed made me hesitate to go in. Now, when you have a lot to do as the leader or owner of a business, sometimes you have to shut the door to be able to block out distractions.

Speaker 1:

But let me tell you guys, the visual barrier between us, the employees, and them, the management, was a deterrent. Not only that, but it really hindered communication. Things that got covered in managerial meetings or just amongst the leaders that were in there rarely made it to the team in a timely manner. A lot of the new updates of the policies and the software on the point of sale and upcoming events that we needed to know about were supposed to be communicated by the head of that department, but that usually only got communicated to whoever was there that day, not those who were more part-time, like me. Some employees got the feeling that if they weren't full-time, they weren't as in the loop as those who were. Communication is one of those things that really shouldn't be delegated To hear it from the horse's mouth so nothing is left out or taking out of contact is actually the best. And another thing about communication see, they don't need to know everything, but letting your employees and your team know that you care, that you're there to listen and help and that they actually matter, communication can dispel so many fears. Communication really is key and needs to be directly coming from their supervisor or the leader of the company. And that's you guys, all right.

Speaker 1:

Lesson number two processes. I learned this from an employee that we had named Annette. Oh my gosh, she was so valuable as an employee. She had worked in the corporate world her whole life and she was always telling us how important processes were to make sure that there was consistency, not just in one area like manufacturing, but in how customers were helped. Emails were written, products were made, packaged and shipped. Once we saw how important our processes were like when somebody left their job and we had to figure out how to do it all over again, we started implementing them in all parts of our business. There was a process book in every single department on how to do the most important things. Now, while the corporation managing our golf club did lots of training videos to help with how our customer experience was and how to wash your hands with how our customer experience was and how to wash your hands, there was little discussed in the way of everyday processes like how to receive food and beverage shipments, how to properly ring up a member versus a walk-in customer so it was put on their account properly, how to stock the beverage carts the best way, and stupid stuff like how to clean the bathrooms, and even though they had checklists, only a few employees actually used them. There were so many things left to the employee's discretion that there wasn't any real consistency, so customers didn't have the same experience from day to day, depending upon who was working To keep this from happening. Having written processes or having the same person actually train everyone is something every business should have. I plan to cover how to create processes in depth in a future episode, so stay tuned for that one. All right. Lesson number three that I learned working a job at a golf course Customer service 101.

Speaker 1:

As a business owner, we all know that the customer experience is one of, if not the most important thing in our business. Customer service is the people who have contact with your customers. This can be anyone from a retail employee to a janitor and it can literally make or break your relationships that you have with the customers. Back in the HX days, we did all of the trade shows, emails and phone calls and got to really know our customers on a personal level. When the business got bigger, we hired people to go to the trade shows, answer the calls and emails, since it was such a huge time investment. But as time went on, we became more and more detached from the customers you know running the business Until we heard one of our employees saying something about no, we won't refund her or exchange her product. Wait what? At hey Chicks, we had a 100% money back guarantee, so this was shocking to us. We didn't know how it had become so different from what we originally trained, so we had to go back into our customer service and retrain those working there.

Speaker 1:

Well, fast forward to my last few months as a customer service employee. What an awesome reminder of how important it is to spend some time being humbled by customers. Oh, my gosh. Not necessarily the most fun, though. As I have said many, many, many times in the past, one of the things that could change this world the most could be if everyone worked a job in customer service at least once in their lives, and not just any customer service job, but one where they earned their wages in the form of tips. If people just got paid based on how good of a job they did, the amount of Karens in this world would be significantly less, am I right? This job was really good at reminding me how to deal with entitled, cranky, miserable and just plain angry people and really reset my view on what's really important, and it reminded me how exhausting it is to be on all day at a job If you are at all removed from the customer service part of your business. I suggest that you listen in on a couple calls secretly, if possible and read some of the emails that go back and forth between customer service and customers. Then jump back in for a day or a week and get your reset. You'll really see what's going on behind the scenes. Which brings me to lesson number four.

Speaker 1:

What you see is not always what you get, especially with employees and work ethic. As a business owner, I don't know how to sit still. There is always something to do when at work. That is not the case with all employees, though. I saw employees that were on when the boss was there but literally lounging in an office chair on their phones when they were not there. I'm sorry, but I feel like it is stealing when an employee is punched in but literally doing nothing while at work. There is always something to do. Was it the employer's or the employee's fault here? I'm not sure, but there was a common theme across most of the employees there.

Speaker 1:

I heard them say they don't pay me enough to do such and such, or that's not my job. There should always be a list of things to do when you're not busy. Guys, I clean the baseboards and organize the freezers and the walk-in coolers. For crying out loud, maybe it's just me who feels guilty for being paid to do nothing, I don't know. Well, somehow we as leaders need to translate this to our employees, paint the vision, so to speak, but also, as a leader, be willing to do these things as well. Never be too busy to take out the trash, unload a shipment and clean the cobwebs in the corners. Write a list of the get to it later things and incentivize it. Put a $5 gift card to whoever does the most. The more you train people that there's always something to do, the more they look for things to do besides. Look at your phone, that is. And finally, lesson number five death by meetings. I actually stole that from Patrick Lencioni's book named Death by Meeting. But even at Haychicks we had meetings that were not on time, on task or efficient. But I was reminded how much they can really suck at this job. My biggest beef with certain people from Haychicks and this new job were that people weren't on time even if they called the meeting. Guys, this has got to be addressed in your business too, I'm sure.

Speaker 1:

Schedule meetings to be short and paid. There is rarely a meeting that should be over a half an hour long. Really, I know that's hard to believe, but time is money. Meetings are not for socializing. They are not for brainstorming, unless it is a specific brainstorming meeting. Socialize outside of the meeting. Have an agenda, and that is just business lingo for a list of items to be discussed at a formal meeting. If you need more time, schedule it, but keep it on point. You are there to get answers or to clarify things. Then, when you're done, either you as a leader or assign someone the task of emailing everybody who was there and even those who missed it all of the notes from the meeting.

Speaker 1:

Now, this is something that this job that I had did right. They always sent out an email within a couple hours of all the meetings to recap everything that was said. Now, to make this easier at hey Chicks, I implemented a platform called Basecamp and I'll put that in the show notes. Basecamp kept all of the project statuses, meeting agendas and notes all in one place. This platform is so worth it and it makes it super easy to know what everyone is working on with just a few clicks, and it really cut down on the number of meetings that we actually had to have. So these lessons are not all that I learned for working at this job, but I gotta tell you it taught me so much.

Speaker 1:

I am back up in Northwest Wisconsin for the next five months, so we will see if I end up going back in the fall or not. It did feel good to be part of a team again, but I've got some of my own plans for my next business that I need to focus on. Well, guys, I hope my venture back into employee land can help you find holes in your leadership so you can patch them. Otherwise, maybe you should get a job for a few months. The extra cash that I got didn't suck and from now on, j-o-b stands for joyful opportunity in business as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 1:

If you found any of this helpful, shoot me a note in the fan mail portion of the description. It'll send me a note directly. Also, share this with your team. If you've got one, patch those holes. Also, be sure to click the link in the show notes to join our email list so you don't miss any of the latest episodes and information. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you next week. See ya. Thanks for listening to today's episode. Be sure to check us out on the Quality of Life podcast, facebook and Instagram pages and our website, theerin Olsoncom, for downloads and more information. That is T H E E R I N O L S O Ncom. Stay up to date by joining our email newsletter. Together, we can improve all of our quality of life.