Cliche #11 - It isn't the customer who yells the loudest who gets their parts, it is the one who gets into the schedule first.

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Explanation:
It is no secret that vendors often play favorites. The customer who gives them the most money, or they have the strongest relationship with gets preferential treatment. If you are not that customer, how do you make sure that you get your parts when you need them? The answer is simple. You must be faster and more diligent with your suppliers to make sure they don’t push your parts aside in favor of their bigger customers. It is not uncommon for several customers in the same industry to have the same suppliers, especially if the supplier has a specialty that everyone needs. Sometimes the whole industry heats up at the same time and all of the customers get busy and need the specialty supplier’s products or services.

The best way to deal with this is not to recognize when there is an increase in business, but to have it built into the companny's routine processes.

For example, make sure there are goals for how long it takes to place an order with suppliers for components when an order from a customer is received. This begins with how long it takes to enter a received order into the company’s ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. A good goal is the same day that the order is received. This should be monitored closely. If this data isn’t available, just visit the customer service department and ask each person to show you all the orders they’ve received, but haven’t entered into the computer yet. The customer service personnel may have many good reasons why the orders haven’t been entered, which include pricing issues, technical questions that need to be answered by the customer, credit issues, etc. The bottom line though is that if the order from the customer hasn’t been entered in the computer, your purchasing department, and therefore your vendors don’t know anything about the order. Don’t be surprised to find orders that have been in the customer service department for days, or sometimes weeks without being entered.

The next question to ask in determining how long it will take to get into the vendor’s schedule is how often your company runs its MRP (Material Resource Planning) software. This normally happens every night, but sometimes it doesn’t. The MRP is what crunches the data to determine when to place orders with suppliers for components. If the MRP doesn’t run every day, you will lose time before the purchasing department sees the requirements and can place orders with suppliers.

Next it is important to know that as soon as the purchasing department sees the requirements from the MRP system, they place orders with suppliers. The goal should be that every part that is needed is ordered on or before the lead time of the supplier. This will vary based on how much liability you are comfortable with because once you place an order, as it can be hard to cancel later if your customer order changes. When a customer has an urgent requirement, it is usually already inside normal lead times, so the order needs to be placed immediately. How long it takes a buyer to place an order once the computer says it is needed is actually pretty easy to monitor, but most companies don’t do it. Again, just like the customer service person, the buyer may have many reasons why they have not placed an order with a supplier as soon as they need to do it. They may be negotiating for a better price, answering questions from the supplier, or they may just not get to it because of their other work load. It is not unusual for a buyer to take an entire week to get through all of their buy signals from the computer.

It is easy to see how time is lost at every step in the process. The goal should be that for an urgent customer requirement, their order is entered into the ERP the same day it is received, the MRP runs that night, and the component orders are placed with suppliers the next day. If that happens, it will be your competitor's challenge to unseat your order from the vendor’s production schedule. If the buyer is diligent about checking periodically on the progress of the order, the vendor will be very reluctant to push it out in favor of another customer.

Ops #6 - Can this plant be saved? Part III

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I remember waking up in the middle of the night with my stomach in a knot. Everything that anyone could think of to turn the plant around had been done and it simply wasn’t working. People seemed happier and were working well together, and we were producing a lot of components, but lights weren’t being shipped. After four weeks we hit $850,000 past due. At this point everyone was really questioning the approach because we should have been shipping better, but we weren’t. In the end the only thing to do was to stay on course. Fortunately, the next week we started to ship at a tremendous rate. It was like a dam breaking. At week five we were down to $650,000 and by week six we were down to $300,000. By week eight we were below $50,000. The plant stayed current for at least the next year. There was always the specific customer issue to solve, but the plant was essentially healthy.

Once the customers stopped complaining and the customer service people from the company stopped complaining, the heat was off the corporate execs to do something about the plant. They found other headaches to focus on and talk of closing the plant just went away. There was still a lot to do, but the plant was well on its way to healthy production and much better financial performance.

Final Note:
Some people who have experience fixing underperforming, or disastrous operations, will first fix the problems and then work on the long term health of the plant. My approach is a little different. What I try to do is determine what infrastructure needs to be put in place for the long term, and then put it in place as quickly as possible. With this approach, the manager doesn’t have to change strategies, or have a point where things are going well enough to switch from the band aid to the long term cure. The down side is that sometimes things will continue to get worse while the infrastructure is being put in place. It is imperative to pick the most important infrastructure to put in place first that will have the dual effect of fixing the current problem and creating the foundation for the future. Another reason for this approach is that there is a danger of the band aid becoming the standard routine if it is place too long.

Ops #6 - Can this plant be saved? part II.

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The day after taking over the plant the HR Manager came in to my office and asked if I would like to meet the shop steward. She minded me that the previous plant manager had a daily meeting with the steward and asked if I would be doing that too. I told her that I was aware of the meetings, but no, I did not intend to continue them, but of course I would like to meet the shop steward. We had a pleasant five minute meeting. He asked me how I intended to process the outstanding grievances. I told him that I knew there were problems between the managers and supervisors and the workers and I would be addressing them immediately. I assured him that any time that I was aware of an instance where management did not uphold the contract to the letter, it would be corrected immediately whether or not a formal grievance was filed. I think it was the last meeting I ever had with the shop steward. It confirmed my long held belief that if people are treated fairly and in a way consistent with good management practices, both union and non-union employees will perform at a high level.

My next order of business was to hold a meeting with the managers and supervisors concerning the appalling safety record of the plant. It was literally an unsafe place to work and was running at the rate of several injuries per month, which was far worse than the next worst plant in the whole corporation. I asked each person in the group to tell me what they thought was causing the problem, and to my amazement, every single person blamed the workers for their injuries. They said the people just didn’t care. It was unbelievable to me that they actually thought that workers would hurt themselves on purpose.

I told them that I believed that there were two places a person should be safe and their families could rest assured that they would be safe in those places. The places are at school and at work. I went on to tell them that I took it personally when someone in my organization got hurt. That I had let them down and I had let their families down. Any plant that was unsafe was a failure of management, not a failure of the workforce. So how do we improve the safety of the plant? It isn’t about a Human Resources program, but simply how seriously the managers and supervisors took safety. I told them that the next time a person in the shop was hurt, I was to be informed immediately. If someone had to be taken to the clinic, the person’s supervisor was to go with them. Any safety incident would be investigated within twenty four hours, with containment and corrective actions initiated immediately. Each manager and supervisor would initiate these things immediately and let the paperwork catch up later. The group looked a little embarrassed, but they got the message.

I then moved to the grievances. When I asked about these, the supervisors basically said the rules in the contract were unworkable and mostly stupid. The biggest gripe was with the seniority rules as applied to overtime. The contract stated that the senior person in each classification was to be offered any overtime available and if they refused, the next senior person should be offered the OT until someone accepted. This is a pretty standard work rule in union contracts. The problem for the supervisors was that they didn’t want to follow it. If a junior person was working on a job, they wanted that person to complete it on overtime since the more senior person wouldn’t know anything about the work and would take twice as long to complete it by the time they came up to speed. Beyond that it was apparent that they just weren’t very familiar with the contract language, or how to interpret it. I convened several mandatory meetings with all the managers and supervisors to go over the contract line by line. They were informed that we would only fight grievances where the worker was in clear violation of the contract, or the interpretation of the contract was in question. This allowed for the situation where the supervisor wanted a junior person to complete a job on overtime. The contract remedy for not offering the work and allowing a junior person to do it was that the most senior person had to be paid for the hours worked (in addition to the person who did the work). That might be an acceptable business decision in some instances, so why fight it – just pay it. The education on the contract and the policy that we would follow it to the letter resulted in an immediate reduction of grievances to near zero. When a potential grievance offense occurred, it typically led to a teaching opportunity for the supervisor involved. I was careful to not undermine the supervisor’s authority by allowing the supervisor to be the face of the company in the response whenever possible so that they would gain credibility and not lose it. The last thing I wanted was the supervisor to be viewed as weak by the work force.

Once the safety and labor relations were addressed, I moved to the organization and operations. What I found was that there seemed to be no obvious relationship between the experience of the supervisors and the jobs they were performing. This happened because whenever a supervisor left, the plant manager would hire the best supervisor he could find into that position. This seems to make sense until you looked at the plant as a whole. The supervisor in charge of the metal fabrication department had a few years of fabrication experience, but over twenty years running a warehouse. The supervisor running the warehouse had never worked in a warehouse before his current position, but had many years of metal fabrication experience as a supervisor. This was an obvious switch, but there were others as well. The good news was that everyone in management was hungry for a change, and no one resisted efforts to make things better. It took a little convincing, but several job changes, as well as task and responsibility reassignments, were embraced.

I also found that there was mothballed equipment in the plant that could be used in departments that were capacity constrained. The logic was that led to these machines being taken out of service was that they were slow, old, and inaccurate machines. With minimal expense, these machines were put back in operation to handle jobs that did not require the precision of the newer machines. We also revamped the production schedule to make it much tighter and productive. With less time spent on grievances, safety issues, and other personnel issues, and with additional machinery in production, output and productivity began to soar.

I thought the turn-around was going better than expected until I realized the late order number was going up. The plant measured late orders by dollar amount late. This was just one of the problems at the plant, but poor delivery predictability and poor quality were the things that impacted customers most directly. The plant had been running at about $250,000 of orders past due for over a year. When you consider the product was lighting fixtures, with an average price of about $50, that’s a lot of late product! Working with the managers and supervisors, I published a written recovery plan, so that everyone would know what was different and what was expected of everyone. After a week of recovery efforts, the past due hit $350,000. After two weeks it was at $500,000. I knew things would get worse before they got better, so I wasn’t panicking yet. After three weeks, we hit $650,000 and I started to panic.

What would you do here?  Stay the course?  Change everything back?  Try something completely new?
Check in for part III in a few days to see how this saga ends.

Ops #6 - Can this plant be saved? part I.

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I was given responsible for a plant in the mid west that was performing very poorly in virtually every category. The Division GM had asked me to take responsibility for the plant and he, the VP of Sales, The Customer Service Manager, and myself flew from California to inform the Plant Manager and assess what it would take to get the plant back on track. The VP of Sales was there because customers were screaming for something to be done at the plant and she would have to sell any turn-around efforts to them. The plant had been performing badly for over a year and no one could actually remember when the plant performed well. I spent a few days reviewing the plants records and talking to all of the managers. At a wrap up meeting at the end of the third day the Sales VP asked me how long it would take to get the late orders shipped and improve the product quality. I told her that we could be back to the schedule within 5 weeks. After a year of customer complaints I expected her to jump for joy that she could report to customers that we would be back on track that quickly. I actually had my doubts that it could be pulled off that quickly. Her reaction was to literally sit down and put her head on the table and start crying. She said “I can’t take this for another five weeks”.

What I found was a terrible relationship between the management of the plant and the unionized workforce. The relations were so contentious that the plant, of only about 150 employees, was generating several grievances per week. This led to a meeting between the Plant Manager and the Shop Steward every day to discuss plant activities. I was told these daily meetings often lasted for two hours. It was clear that poor leadership was the fundamental problem and I had no choice but to remove the Plant Manager and named myself as Acting Plant Manager while starting a search for a replacement. When the corporate headquarters learned of the extent of the problems at the plant, they informed me that they intended to close the plant. I asked for a chance to turn it around and they basically told me that I could try if I wanted, but they were going to proceed with preparations to close the plant.

A meeting was called for the entire plant to inform them of the change in leadership. I presented to the employees the plant performance scores and how they compared to the company’s other fifteen plants. They were at the bottom of almost every category. I explained some of the things that needed to change and how important it was that the plant improve. In keeping with the environment of animosity between the workers and management, one of the old timers stood up after I was done speaking and said something to the effect of “We’re glad the other guy is gone, but we’ve heard it all before and he’s the sixth plant manager we’ve run off and you’ll be the seventh”. Having some experience with a rough crowd, I had one of my best ever retorts. I calmly responded that I couldn’t guarantee that all the efforts to improve that I had laid out would work, but what I could guarantee was that if they didn’t, there would not be an eighth plant manager. I could tell by the reaction in the room that no one thought I was bluffing.

Yes this really happened.  Check back in the next few days to find out what happened.  How would you handle this situation?

SWOT Analysis

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Every company has strengths and weaknesses.  It is valuable for a manager to determine what they are as soon as possible after joining a company, whether they are responsible for a department, or the whole company.  A fast and simple way to do this is with a SWOT analysis.  SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.  Every business student learns this as part of their curriculum.  After determining what the companies (or department's) strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, the manager can create infrastructure projects to enhance the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses.  By putting together a focused plan, many of the weaknesses can be turned into strengths.  If the team participates in brainstorming the lists for the SWOT analysis, they are more likely to buy into the plan that comes out of exercise.  Sometimes the brainstorming session can be very enlightening for the manager, but sometimes the brainstorm only produces generalities that are hard to act upon.  The following list is provided from many SWOT exercises to give examples of the kinds of things that can go on to the lists.  Most of these items can be worded to be either a strength, weakness, opportunity or threat, depending on its applicability to the specific company or department.  Usually the strength list is considerably shorter than the weakness list.   This is normal, because most managers and employees tend to focus more on what is wrong more than what is right.  Be careful not to ignore the strengths.  Enhancing the strengths is important, particularly in a successful company.  Also it is good to know what the company views as its strengths when marketing to existing and potential customers.  Once the SWOT analysis is completed, the next step is to turn the lists into projects or actions.  Then those projects/actions must be prioritized.  The methodology for prioritizing projects will be the subject of a future blog post.

Here are the examples of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.  Remember that almost all of them can be reworded to go from a strength to a weakness and vice versa.

Market or Industry
Semiconductor, Lighting, EMS, or other Industry
Have not exploited __________ (ex. Medical, Aerospace,Oil & Gas) industry potential
Too Concentrated in ___________ industry
Not diversified
Global presence
Presence in LCR (Low Cost Region)
Reliance on too few Customers / Industries
__________ Industry is using more, and more complex ______ (ex. Plastics, Ceramics, Castings)
Close to customers geographically
Close to suppliers geographically

Sales
Too much focus on only a few customers
Success in gaining new customers
Effectiveness of Sales effort towards non-industry customers
Low Cost Quote Model - mark up is very competitive

Customers
Good penetration with existing customers
Poor cause/effect understanding of Customer Programs
Flexibility to Customer is Disruptive and costly
We are hard to do business with (communication)
Recognized name with key customers
Loyalty of long term customers
Perceived as flexible and responsive by customers
Strong relationship with primary customer
Ability to adapt to customer needs
Customer Base
Strength of primary customer
Loyalty of Customers - Long Term
Enjoy long term repeat business

Personnel Characteristics
Work ethic of personnel
Stable long term personnel
Dedicated + Hard working work force
Dedicated management + employees
Good Labor Pool – Technicians, Engineers, Programmers, etc.

Human Resources
Ineffective Performance Reviews
Benefits attract talented personnel
High turnover of new hires
Free medical/dental for employees
Low employee turnover w/exceptions
Employee Benefits + HR Support
Inter-Dept conflict Resolution Process
Retention of talent
Lack of Enhancement Training
Lack of Training for required skills
Measurement of training effectiveness

Company & Executive Management
Too Many New Senior Managers
Duplication of functions in more than one department
Financial stability
Recognized name & history
Treatment of employees
Lack of recognition of employee effort
Senior Management skills
Lack of team building
Management Commitment to Quality Products
Communication with employees
Training for required skills
Size of company
Over reaction to customer demands
Prevention of issues
Poor Resource Reallocation Based on Changing Situations
Corporate micro-management
Success in achieving top objectives

Company Culture
Shoot the messenger/blame others/CYA culture
CYA Mentality
I’m OK if my task is complete
I’m OK – You’re not OK
Desire to push tasks/functions on others (Even if it is inappropriate)
High Stress Environment is the Routine
React to issues vs. prevent issues
Minimal bureaucracy
Department silos
Email overload, including abuse of "copy all"

Strategy
Product line too diverse
Poor strategic planning discipline and execution
Lack of Desire for Global Success
No plan to build infrastructure
Strategy for growth
Identity Crisis -
          Examples - Engineering Company
                            Semi-conductor company
                            Technology Leader

Capabilities
Customer Service/order entry errors
Assembly Procedures are out of date
Poor purchasing control
No Cost Reduction Program
Inventory Accuracy
Lack of resources for supplier management
Quality and amount of machinery
Low Cost Product
Availability of technology tools on shop floor
New Product Introduction (NPI) Process
Capacity
Capacity Planning
Ability to ramp/grow
Lead Times are too long:
                                     To customers
                                     From suppliers
                                     From our shop
Manufacturing Processes & Expertise (custom products)
Good work instructions for Operators and Assemblers
Flexibility internally- Perceived as responsive to customer
Ability to find cost reductions
Delays in NPI processes
Supplier management
Effectiveness and efficiency of production planning
Don't always follow good work instructions
Poor shop floor travelers (sequences missing or wrong)
Expansion capability
Customer Service
Capability to produce parts quickly using prototype shop
Quick reaction to customer needs
Flexibility to meet customer needs
Slow to adapt to new customer requirements
Late Deliveries
Planning/Execution of transferring products between sites (mostly between US and Asia)
Availability of tools to do the job in office (phones, laptop)

IT
Good ERP, email and Document Management systems
Availability of information from ERP
Ineffective information systems
Standard Electronic reports are not user Friendly
Email Overload
“Reply to All” is used too often
Poor IT Support
Difficult to obtain IT support
Effective use of ERP system
Automated information system-pc’s availability
Outlook, Eng Software (3D to 2D),

Finance/Accounting/Costs
Internal Audit Program
Profitability
Actual product costs are not Accurate
Ineffective accounting support to factories
High overhead
Low fixed costs

Quality
Timeliness of incoming inspection
Quality of product
Process Control
ISO certified
Field Service Processes
Inadequate testing prior to release
Timely support from QA dept
Incoming Inspection
Poor perception of the value of, and little respect for the Quality Organization

Engineering, R&D, Technical Capability
Diversity of Technical Skills
Good technical resources for customers in engineering and production
R&D capability
Good diversity of technical skills in _______ (ex. Plastics, ceramics, machining, etc.)
Prototype capability
Engineers don’t spend enough time on the shop floor
Document Control
Engineering Change Order (ECO) Process
New product development (DFM/TTM)
Depth of technical knowledge

Ops #5 - My Accountant has a Gun - Part III

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The next day I was contacted by our corporate legal counsel, who insisted that we obtain a restraining order from a local court to make sure that Jim could not return to the company. I learned that a restraining order can only be issued to keep someone away from a person and not a business. As the head of the company, and since the actual threat had been against someone not in the state, the restraining order named me as the person that Jim could not come near. I was really a proxy for the whole company because the actual wording of the order said he couldn’t come within 200 feet of me, my home, and my place of work (it also included my wife and children and their work and schools).


We thought that because Jim lived in another state, he would not appear to contest the restraining order. If the defendant does not appear, the judge will normally issue the order. I went to the court house with a local attorney and our HR manager at the appointed time and was surprised to see Jim in the courtroom. He had returned to California and hired a lawyer to represent him. He intended to fight the restraining order because he feared having this in his record would impact his ability to get consulting work.

I didn’t realize that the appointed date and time was actually a trial date, and that since there was a plaintiff and a defendant present, we immediately commenced a trial. It took about three hours for both sides to present witnesses and cross examine me, the HR manager, and Jim. I testified that Jim was a good employee until this incident and there was no evidence that he actually intended to carry out his threat. I told the judge that it was definitely a bit frightening on the day of the incident. Jim said he was just blowing off steam and had no intention of hurting anyone. I thought the judge would rule that a restraining order was not necessary and that we had over reacted, but he didn’t. He came down firmly on the side of the company and said that with the number of times that employees had actually returned to get revenge for perceived grievances, companies had to take all threats seriously and issued the restraining order for three years.

Yes, this really happened.

Ops #5 - My Accountant has a Gun - Part II

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I called my security officer, who was really the plant maintenance manager with a collateral duty as security officer. We agreed that we would keep an eye on Jim while we decided how to proceed. We found him working alone in his office and did not appear to be agitated any longer. At this point I knew that at the very least we would need to terminate Jim and get him off the premises.

A hastily arranged conference call took place with my boss, Corporate HR, Corporate Counsel, me, my HR Manager, and Security Officer. Everyone was in agreement that Jim’s consulting contract would be terminated immediately for both the threat and having guns on company property, which was against published policy. Here is how we proceeded:

We called the local police and told them what had happened. They were sympathetic to our situation, but told us that they could not react based on a threat only, particularly since it had been directed at someone far away. They did say that they would make a note of the information and would respond immediately if anything more aggressive were to occur. Their advice was that if we were concerned, we should contact a private security company.

I was concerned, and the HR Manager just happened to know someone who worked for a private security company. We called them and they had a large, imposing looking, private security guard in plain clothes on our premises within 45 minutes. He was carrying a licensed concealed weapon. This was not your typical shopping mall security guard. He was a very experienced professional who knew how to handle this type of situation.

The plan was to terminate Jim, but up to now his aggression was directed at my boss, but what about after I terminated him? Would this trigger an angry response? Don’t forget about the guns that we presumed were in the trunk of his car.

I called Jim and asked him to come to my office. This was not unusual, and he wouldn’t suspect what was coming. When he walked into my office he saw there were several people already waiting for him. I had the HR Manager, the Security Guard, and the Security Officer already seated and asked him to sit down next to the security guard. I quickly told him that he had violated company policy by making the threats to Bill and that his contract was being terminated immediately. To my surprise he calmly said he was expecting this since he had left my office earlier. I told him that I had since learned that he did in fact have access to guns that he kept in his car and that was why the security guard was part of the meeting and introduced him. Jim went on to say that he was just mad and blowing off steam and that I was over reacting. I told him that we hoped he was only talking when making the threat, but as a precaution we had brought in the security professional.

I then gave Jim a choice. I told him we were prepared to allow him to go home immediately. I told him that we would buy him a one way ticket home and that the security guard would escort him to his apartment and help him pack up all his belongings and then stay with him until he was safely on board the plane home. We were specific that we would send his guns to him separately using acceptable shipping as long as they were legally owned by him. He asked what would happen if he didn’t go along with this. I told him that if he did not choose this option, we would turn the matter over to the police. He obviously did not know what we knew about how the police had reacted to our earlier call. Faced with the finality of not having a job and being away from home, he accepted this option and left with the security guard. He cooperated fully and left on the plane later that night, with the security guard with him the entire time. They actually hit it off well and had a pleasant evening together.

The story doesn’t end there, but you'll have to come back in three days to get part III.  How would you have handled this differently?

Ops #5 - My Accountant has a Gun - Part I

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I was the Division President of a company in California that was wholly owned by a holding company headquartered in another state. There were several companies owned by the holding company and operated as separate entities, even though they were very similar, so that they could be sold separately if necessary. My boss was in South Carolina.

The holding company uncovered several serious financial irregularities with the company finances, which led to the departure of both my predecessor and the VP of Finance. The holding company sent a consultant to act as the VP of Finance on an interim basis that they had worked with before while we searched for a permanent replacement. I will call him Jim (not his real name). Although Jim was known to tell some tall tales, he was an excellent accountant and did a lot to get the books back in order. Because he was very knowledgeable, both in general accounting principles and the format that headquarters wanted their reports, the accounting staff liked working with him. Jim’s home was in the Midwest and he was living in a corporate apartment nearby during this assignment.

On this particular occasion, we were tasked with pulling together an enormous amount of financial information for some analysis that the holding company was performing. Jim worked nonstop for about three days to compile the information. He was working at least 18 hours a day during this stretch. When the information was complete, we sent it off late at night and went home feeling pretty pleased that what we thought was impossible when we started was actually sent on time and done very well.

When I got to the office the next morning I saw that my boss, who was also a very good accountant, had sent an email to me and copied Jim referencing the reports. Since he was on the east coast, he was able to review the reports that we had sent late the night before and respond to us before we got into the office. As was his nature, he was highly critical of a few minor clerical errors in the reports and completely ignored the herculean effort that Jim had put in to complete the reports on time. I was just about to get up to try to intercept Jim before he saw the reports when he appeared at my door with a red face. I could tell he had already seen the email and invited him in and shut the door.

“I know why you’re here” I said. He started to vent about the email and I just sat quietly because I agreed with him that my boss had been too harsh. Jim deserved a pat on the back and got a kick in the teeth. Jim said “And don’t think I wouldn’t say the same thing to Bill if he were here”. Then he upped the vitriol even further by saying “and if he didn’t like it, I might just have to deck him and don’t think I wouldn’t do it”. I realized that Jim was going too far, but he was just getting started. His voice was getting louder. I tried to calm him down and told him he couldn’t make threats like that and I wouldn’t tolerate them. Then he said “In fact, I just might go out to my car and get my gun and blow his F__ing head off!” At this point I got up and had to almost shout for him to hear me. “Jim, you are way out of line. You need to shut up before it’s too late.” This shocked him into silence. I told him the conversation was over and that he couldn’t say things like that and he needed to leave my office immediately.

Since Jim was a bit of a talker, I really didn’t think he was serious, but I knew I had to address the situation and I couldn’t have a person around that would make threats like that. The good news was that the person he had threatened was 2,000 miles away and in no danger. I had my HR Manager come to my office to get her take on how to handle Jim’s threat. To my surprise, she said “Oh yeah, I’ve seen the guns he has in the trunk of his car. He showed them to me the other day”. My feeling that Jim was a harmless talker evaporated and I became very concerned over what he might do. The fact that we had a potentially unstable character and guns in close proximity was weighing on my mind.





That’s where I’d like to end part I. Think about what you would do in this situation, then read again in three days to see how we handled it in real life.  Yes, this really happened.