What do your warehouse workers really think of your company?

And once you know, how do you change their perception?

This Place Sucks! gets those questions answered!

This title of this book is a direct quote from logistics workers who've confided in me when I visited their work sites or when I talked to them at our educational seminars. They say it in a way that only a warehouse employee could say it.

There are various translations: "That new WMS (Warehouse Management System) will never work at this company because 'This Place Sucks!'" Or, "I don't care about moving up the career ladder at this company because 'This Place Sucks!'" And my favorite, "Management knows 'This Place Sucks' and they don't care, so why should I!" These people didn't mean any harm to their companies or the people who run them, they just wanted to express their opinion to the first person who came along and would listen.

That just happened to be me.

Quotes from This Place Sucks!

I was told "This Place Sucks" by a person in the purchasing department, because the numbers in their inventory system were so inaccurate that their jobs were made extremely difficult.

"The only measure of what you believe is what you do. If you want to know what people believe, don't read what they write, don't ask them what they believe, just observe what they do."

After our meeting, she pulled me aside and said, "You know, things will never change around here." When I asked why, she said—you guessed it—because "This Place Sucks!"

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What do your people say about your organization?

At every company I have ever worked with, I have to tell the leaders not to be hurt or even rancorous about what we find or what people tell us.

Your warehouse is the first to touch the product when it arrives and the last to touch it when it leaves. Your warehouse employees are usually the first people in the building in the morning and the last to leave at night. Your warehouse personnel quite often will tell a complete stranger, "This Place Sucks!" What are you going to do about that?

Are you going to listen to why they feel that way? Or are you going to let them translate those feelings to your customers with the orders they: pick, pack, and deliver. Because even though "This Place Sucks," sounds harsh, think about how harsh it will sound coming from one of your customers because they got the wrong product.