TGIM!

Last night I sat down with my two boys and watched a hunting show on youtube.  Nothing too groundbreaking there, we have done that before.  This time I cued up my friend and co-worker Trey Arentz.   Trey started here in operations and has transitioned into an inside specialist at Kiel.   He’s an authentic guy and lives with passion, I knew that the second I met him.  Trey casually mentioned this video to me, and I thought I should watch it.

Trey loves hunting and the outdoors; it truly is magical to see him talking about the outdoors.  When you watch the video you will see that.  It’s one of the reasons God made Trey.

Trey had been working 45-48 hours a week until the new start of our 40 hour work weeks.

That is between 250 and 400 hours a year difference.

Potentially 4000 hours in the next decade. I am guessing for Trey a lot of that will be outdoors.

That is why we are doing this, so Trey can do that more!

It’s not about making more money (or less which is a possibility but I don’t believe it), it’s about the Trey’s of the world. It’s about you.  Thank you Trey.

Thank you for being one of the amazing 550 people that work here!

Here is his short film.  Probably consumed best not at work.  (Obviously.)  I highly recommend it for anyone that loves life, family, or the outdoors in general.

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How do we get there?  DISCIPLINE = FREEDOM.  The more disciplined in our tasks and our jobs at work, THE MORE EFFECTIVE, the quicker WE will get there.  It’s why Justin Spuda, our player personnel director, loves Jokko Willink, who wrote a whole book about it.   Project G, forces us to be disciplined but will create FREEDOM!   And on, and on.

Do not use “I can’t get anything done because we are forced to work 40.”

It’s a bullshit excuse and I personally won’t tolerate such nonsense. 

That doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges, but there were plenty of challenges working 60 hours a week too…

For systems, this is a work in progress at Little Chute and of course all new to Amherst.  We will get there as we “level the load.”  In manufacturing a bit of overtime every once in a while may be needed to put 5lbs of stuff in a 1lb container, but we will work on it!

For me?

I’m not sure there is anyone at Drexel that enjoys working more than myself.   It’s all I have ever done.  And truth be told, it’s darn near the only thing I am particularly good at.   I have never broken 45 in golf.    I have never shot a trophy buck, never caught my limit of fish, my garden is a work in progress, I am not a craftsman, like many of you.  I only like vehicles because it takes me from a to z.  I could go on.  I guess we all have our weaknesses and strengths.  Mine just happens to be work.  It brings me great joy to see an idea come to life and employ people and ultimately beat the competition as it generates income too.  It’s fantastic helping a customer uniquely and know that my touch, even in a small way, made that project or their building business better because we were a part of it.  So working less for me is almost ironic, the thing I do the most I am trying to do less.  BUT I WILL TRY TO LEAD BY EXAMPLE.

This does not mean there won’t be long days, and work to do.  Last week I worked back to back 14 hour days if you count drive time.  I loved it.  But at one point later in the week, I took an extended lunch to drop off some stuff to the restore shop to put some items to good use that were in my garage.  BABY STEPS!

GO!

Joel