The idea for this blog post came from an article published in the Globe and Mail newspaper. The author argued that instead of dreaming up new things for 2019, companies would be wise to make a list of practices and policies to eliminate. Interesting.
So I ran a little exercise by taking the company I work for and creating a wish list of practices I would like to eliminate. This is a great place to mention that we had a great year in 2018 and all of the points below are “minor”. Still, I hope my boss is too busy to read this blog post.
Vas-ed beds
Let’s start with the worst one: weeding. I normally cultivate our beds and rake up the weeds but I had no idea that some crews actually referred to my fluffy finessed beds as “Vas-ed”. Hahaha.
The practice I would eliminate is the frequent hand-weeding on all fours. I find it slow without tools, my fingers hurt, and I am absolutely certain that many of the hand-picked weeds still have their roots in the soil.
Tree blowing in the fall
This is a sin that almost makes me cry. Imagine a gorgeous red Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) by the road and near a communal mailbox. It’s looking its best in the fall. Until workers come along and blow the crown in a misguided attempt to dislodge every remaining leaf.
I say leave the tree alone and let me enjoy the colour show. Soon we’ll just be looking at bare branches.
Switches
When people go on vacation or get sick, we find people to fill in or the boss sends me. But often the regular foreman doesn’t pass on any information to the new guy. This rarely leads to shocking disasters but there are awkward moments when critical information is missing.
I say pass on solid notes before leaving so the subs have an easier time. For example, some sites require later machine start up, and some units don’t get serviced.
This leads us to the last point.
Notebooks
We tried this before: we gave the foremen notebooks but the days were crazy busy and nobody took the time to write things down. So this practice died quietly but I wish it hadn’t.
It’s handy to keep notes for site requests that had to be pushed to a later date. Or for listing tasks that were completed.
Again, the company I work for had a great year in 2018. And I hope yours did as well.
What policies and practices can you eliminate?
