Through the eyes of a sign shop employee

I’ve hired a few people over the years, briefly as shop owner, several as production manager, but the vast majority of my 41 years have been spent as an employee! So maybe that’s a perspective worth reviewing?

Most owners/employers will say they have little to no idea why an employee left. Even big corporations with their “exit interviews” are kidding themselves if the HR department thinks they are getting the truth.

Let’s get real: employees don’t care about the corporation that they just left, or how HR wants to “assess personnel retention strategies.” They just don’t want to burn any bridges!

So, here are a few thoughts from an employee’s perspective.

Why do I apply for a different job?

• Unhappy with current job. That’s obvious, but changing jobs is not taken lightly. It can be pretty disruptive and costly for BOTH sides!
• Other company appears to offer better prospects, pay, advancement, culture
• Location, cost of living, accommodation, lifestyle and opportunities for self, partner, kids

There are probably a hundred more reasons. Heck, in the big city, parking was $30 a day, which was about 1/3 of my take-home pay!

Why do I accept a job when offered?

• If unemployed, the person may be desperate for ANY work. (Hey, I got bills to pay!)
• The promise and perception that it will be better than their current situation
• An appealing combination of pay, benefits, recognition of skills, potential for training or improvement
• Personality of staff and/or management/owners is more appealing
• The perception of “FIT”, whether it is real or imagined

Why do I leave a job?

• Unhappy, unfulfilled, under-appreciated, un-challenged, un-heard—combined with personal life stressors. (Home and work must balance the other. Evidently some people go to work to escape their home situation!)
• Underpaid, or pay not commensurate with increasing responsibility, and/or promised advancement
• Pay equal to or less than staff who contribute less to the shop’s overall success
• Personality conflicts with co-workers, immediate supervisor, big boss, or corporate values and morals
• Inflexible work environment that is unable to meet personal needs, life/work balance, shift work, demands of overtime, layoffs
• Being expected to train ‘”the nephew” who appears to be paid the same as you are, and is likely to become your replacement—although he is disinterested and totally inept! Oh, and maintain production and quality levels, while baby-sitting the newbie.
• Failure to recognize, appreciate, and reward those staff members who are passionate about the business, versus those who are just putting in time to get by
• Lack of input into operations affecting their job; i.e. Don’t put me in charge of, and responsible for, the output of a group of rookies, with no authority or compensation.
• The ”shop” probably has a 5-year plan. Accountants and the bank demand it. Where do I fit in? Will I get updated training opportunities or education to improve my self-worth, as well as my value to the firm?

So what does all this boil down to?

Whether you are an owner, production manager of 50+ people, or a one-person shop just cultivating a good “helper,” looking at the situation from the employee’s perspective can be very helpful.

The usual morning greeting of “How’s it going?”  needs to be followed up regularly by meaningful discussions like:

“How are things working out in your current position?”

“What do you need to feel more connected to the business?”

“What would your ideal role with this workgroup be in the future?”

For every employee that is failing to perform to your “standards,” there’s the question, “Where did these expectations originate?”

Did they really get adequate training or supervision for the role they are currently in?

We’d all like to have two Fridays a week to get everything promised out the door, and sign shops can be stressful places. I’ve seen people who only perform when there’s a pressing deadline; others seem to freeze when the stress of more than two jobs are kept in their head!

Some bosses have been lucky, or spoiled, by the ”great” employee—the one who washes the truck at the end of the day, picks up a broom two minutes before closing, or shows a customer how to apply “them stickers” to their kid’s toy. Why do those “other guys” need soooo much direction and supervision?

Let’s admit that it ain’t easy being the boss, tech support, fabricator, truck fixer, accountant, and trainer, all at the same time. Heck, I’m not even good at half of these things!

And when that makes it hard to be an employer, OR an employee, then that hopefully brings up a meaningful conversation—well before you have to “get rid” of someone.

Or before they “get rid” of YOU—by moving on!

Perry Yaremchuk is a veteran of 41 years in the sign and print industry in Western Canada, starting with screenprinting apprenticeship under Swiss master Peter Kaser, followed by opening (and closing!) his own shop, then wisely latched onto apprenticing under the amazing Dave Thomas and Jim Scott at SignCraft in Kelowna BC.

Over a dozen various employers followed, from one-man shops to the massive Pattison Sign Group, and everything in-between, finally settling in at the City of Kelowna, running the Traffic Sign shop for the past 20 years.

“And yes, still have a box of quills, daggers, mahlstick—and some very crusty One-Shot, just in case the mood strikes in retirement!

“Kudos to Larry and Tanya Whan at ‘the best shop I ever worked at,’ the Banff Sign Co.,” says Perry, “where I learned a lot more than I shared, and to SignCraft, probably the first real sign magazine I ever picked up at Behnsens Graphic Supplies.”

Perry Yaremchuk