I Solve Problems

I have always considered myself more of an idea man. I can think of solutions, I am just not as good at implementation. That is a weakness that I really need to work on. But I guess my coworkers think I am good at both.

I tend to be a counselor and this past week my schedule has been busy. I had our sales secretary come to me early in the week and talk to me about her review that is long overdue. She told me that her boss just has not given it to her and it is starting to concern her. She wanted me to give her my own review so she would be prepared for his. I told her I could not do that, but I would give her my own thoughts. I told her the honest truth, which was a little difficult for me to do. I think she appreciated it.

Yesterday morning I was paged to our accounting department. I thought they were going to give me some money, but I was very wrong. I walked in to the entire accounting department sitting there with our service manager. They all started telling me that our system was flawed. They said that we are not billing our customers correctly because the proper information is not being communicated from the sales department. I sympathized with them because I believe that communication is the biggest problem in our company. I agreed to try to solve their problem.

Yesterday afternoon our assembly manager came to me and told me that he had to vent. He said that the owner of the company came to him and told him that the assembly floor needed to be cleaned because we were having customers visit today. The owner then told our machine shop manager to make sure that the assembly floor was cleaned and the machine shop manager promptly told the assembly manager that he had to make sure it was done.

Today I was blind-sided by the owner of the company. He told me that some representatives from a manufacturer in Japan have been offering to buy our company for about four years. He kept telling them that the business is not for sale, so they want to partner with us now. He told me that they were our visitors today and that he wants to have me in the meeting with him and our vice president. I agreed and sat in the meeting. What they manufacturer really wants is to bring their equipment up to the level of our equipment. They want to learn from us. I don't really see much of a benefit for our company, but we will see. My boss left without us talking about the meeting so it will have to wait until next week.

I am done counseling for the week. I just need to enjoy my very busy weekend.