As a teenager, I thought I was working for gas money and spending money. Many years later, I learned that every job that I’ve had has contributed to my understanding of people, of business and how different people lead and manage others.

I’ve worked in a variety of organizations, from a small retail store to a national bank and an international accounting firm. The cultures were vastly different and so was their effectiveness at motivating and engaging their employees.

My first job, when I was 14 years old, was working in a small department store called The Met, short for Metropolitan. We sold all types of dry goods including clothing, diapers, kitchen goods, cheap hardware, batteries, and my favourite, chocolate bars. We had to keep those under lock and key in the candy room! For some reason, the manager didn’t trust anyone with the key to the candy room. A valuable lesson learned.

My first boss, Peggy, was a great manager and she taught me a lot about treating everyone with respect, to ask their opinions and to let them think.

Now, as the stock boy, I didn’t have to think too much. But Peggy never told me how to do anything unless I asked. She told me what to do, but never how to do it. She was confident that I could figure it out. And, her confidence in me increased my own confidence, although most teenage boys seem to exceed in confidence, for some reason.

I could sweep a 6,000 square foot store in nine minutes flat. The best parts were the handyman jobs like climbing up to the roof or up on a 16 foot ladder to change the eight foot light bulbs. Did you know that they explode into a million little pieces if you drop them?

I also learned that I didn’t want to work in retail. The worst part was working in a basement inventory room, on my summer vacation, during the hot July weather, pricing school supplies. Didn’t I just get out of school? Apparently, retail works one season ahead of reality.

The best part was bagging. It was easy, you got to meet people, and I wasn’t stuck in that darn basement. I learned that just because I could fit something in the bag, it didn’t mean the bag could withstand the weight. Customers got very unhappy if their bag ripped and they dropped their purchases. The manager got really mad if the product broke and we had to replace it. Cause and effect, consequences, logic: all these were burned into a teenagers brain.

We also had ‘management trainees’ sent from head office to learn from Peggy. This was an interesting experience because the stock boy, and everyone else working in the store, knew more about the store than the trainees. The trainees tried to manage by position of power (their perception of it, at least) instead of by respect. That didn’t work very well. Actually, it caused the occasional mutiny and intentional lack of cooperation. The mutinies were an important part of their training experience.

The trainees learned a few things:

• leadership doesn’t come from a title
• the most knowledgeable people are front line people, not the people from head office, or their hopeful delegates
• never let the 16 year old stock boy drive your car.

As a parent, I’m looking forward to the work experience that my teenage daughters will gain. They’re not. Working in a clothing store just might cure their fashionitis, or, they might spend all their money on clothing purchased with employee discounts. Only time will tell.

Copyright 2012 Phil Symchych. All rights reserved.