Remember your first job as a kid?
Mine started at the age of 15 as a shelf-filler at Tesco supermarket, the UK equivalent to Coles or Woolworths. I’d delivered newspapers before then but this felt like my first ‘proper’ job.
Saturday mornings I’d be up early, jump on my pushbike, ride to the train station and make my way to Pitsea (a nearby suburb) for a prompt 8.30am start.
We all wore blue jackets. The boys who filled the shelves, that is. Boys weren’t allowed to work on the checkouts; that was reserved for girls only (shows you how long ago it was). Being the biggest local supermarket meant it was super-busy. Sometimes, as quickly as you’d fill a shelf, the bottles, tins and other goodies would be immediately whisked away by the hungry crowd of customers.
It was a bugger of a job 😂
This dazzling entry into the world of work taught me a lot: what customer service means, the value of money (and how hard it can be to earn it), work ethic, how to get along with co-workers (aka teamwork), the type of work I wanted to do longer-term (this wasn’t it), and what it’s like to have a boss.
Mine? A tall man who always wore a suit; the only person in the supermarket who did. He didn’t do team meetings. He didn’t do, “So how are you feeling about work right now?” 1-on-1s. And no end-of-work drinks or events. He had a simple approach: do your job well and you’ll keep it. If not, there are plenty of schoolkids waiting in the wings.
Sounds like a bad boss? Not at all. He was one of my best. Fair, friendly and reasonable but with good standards and firm rules. Regularly late? You were gone. Bit of a slacker? Gone. Rude or difficult to co-workers and customers? Gone.
And yet – if you were getting slammed on your particular aisle, he’d take off his suit jacket, roll up the shirt sleeves and give you a hand. He’d give you the best lunch break time if you were a trusted and reliable worker. And now and again – but not always – he’d pass by your aisle at 5.25pm and say:
👉 Good job today. See you next week.
It was all I needed. None of the current trend towards managers almost drooling from the continual gushing praise some trainers (wrongly) recommend is given to staff, in order to “keep them engaged.” I understood the deal that was in play: turn up and fill the shelves … and we will pay you. Fair call, I thought.
I appreciate, of course, that society, culture, attitudes, expectations, and the world of work have all moved on. But the message remains: deep down, human beings don’t actually need a lot to feel good at work. To work hard. To contribute to a great culture. To deliver the results you and the business want. There are plenty of tips, tools and techniques I can share with you, to help you better manage your team. Yet we often complicate something that’s really quite straightforward. Just show your staff that you see them – truly see them. That you appreciate them (though no need to go over the top). That you’re there to support when needed. And when they do particularly good work, tell them. That’s it.
The rest is useful padding but the core stuff is the key to your success.
Cheers, old boss. You were a good one.
And you? What memories do you have, of your first job and boss?
