Years ago, when I was at Pepsi, a few things happened which put me where I am today. The first is going back to school; which was a big step in the right direction. The second was a promotion to being a sales manager. This story starts where those two things intersect.
Four years ago, I was repacking cans (which is what happens when you break a Pepsi Cube in the grocery store..) when I had this sudden epiphany. I was way to smart to be driving truck or stacking Pepsi for the rest of my life. I scored a 1390 on the SAT’s before they restuctured it, why the hell was I putting cans back into their packages! That night, I went home and applied to Mercyhurst College.
About two years after that, I got promoted to being a sales manager. I had control of over 100 stores and was responsible for everything from the driver and his deliveries to selling in displays and new products. The problem was, all my bosses listened to their bosses - and so on. So if I knew something wasn’t going to sell in a store and would go out of date, I wouldn’t send it in!
Well, needless to say, this put my on the shit list.
Then sitting in meetings, I was always the first one to pipe up and tell on of my managers (or my manager’s manager) that what they had planned would or wouldn’t work, and then follow it up with my rationale. There was one time the head of Human Resources misquoted how much you could invest in a 401K for the year, and I corrected him.
Now my name was in bold on the shit list - with a big red X drawn right through it…
All of this was just an outward response to an inner problem, though. Did I back down at Pepsi? Hell no. But the fact of the matter is I can’t stand blind faith, or unbending loyalty to an organization. No employee should ever just accept that what their manager is telling them is the best way, or the only way. The employee should have to make that decision for themselves. Furthermore, I feel it is up to the employee to share with everyone their thoughts and ideas, for the benefit of the group. If you can save time on a process or know something isn’t going to work, tell someone! Just make sure you have the reasons to back it up.
At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter what goes on at work. But I want to encourage one thing - free thinking. If you are a manager who doesn’t give your employees any leeway or allow them to speak up - settle the f@ck down. What they have to say could save your company thousands of dollars. And if you need to justify it to your boss, then have at it. Approach the situation with the benefits to your company’s bottom line, first. No CEO or upper level manager can ignore that.
If you are an employee - speak up! You are the single greatest asset to your company because you have the experience. Those managers who sit up in their offices all day, swapping emails and seeing who can spend more on hair replacements, big SUV’s, and flat panel TV’s don’t know what you do. They see numbers on a spreadsheet and can’t figure out for the life of them why their newest sales targets aren’t on point, so they blame the salesman, or the delivery drivers, or the time of year. It is up to you to tell them what will and won’t work.
In closing, I just want to say - don’t ever accept anything you are told in the workplace. Figure out why it’s being said, and how you are expected to react. If you agree, that’s great. But if you disagree and you are just going to keep your mouth shut and hope for the best - you have a long, dismal road ahead of you.
Remember, every company is made up of employees who know more about the business than the CEO. Use that to your advantage, and prove you are a leader.
