The Worst Week Ever
So what would the worst week ever be considered? Well alright let me qualify that a little bit, the worst week ever in terms of being a manager. This week we had to “right size” our organization and by that I mean I had to select an employee that would be asked to leave the company. I have been a manager for three years and out of college for four. This means I have a total of four years of professional experience and already I have been asked to lay and employee off. For a 26 year old, I have never had to make a harder decision, a decision that effects someone else’s life so profoundly that I will never forget it.
At the end of the day, I feel that I did the best I could given the information I had. I feel that I made the right decision for the business which is what I set out to do in the first place as that was what was asked of me. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, and likely one of the hardest things I will ever have to do. How many people are asked to make a decision like this when they are 26 years old? How many managers have ever had to make this decision?
I don’t even know really where I want to go with this post. I just know that I want to make it understood that making these decisions sucks. It demoralizes those of us who are left and hurts those that are asked to leave. No one wins.
Is Hagerstown Improving?
"I have a question for our city fathers. If downtown Hagerstown is being improved so much, why are people moving from that area to the outer edges of Hagerstown, where I live? And people that moved into my area all tell me the same thing: They have to get away from the traffic congestion, no parking and the extremely loud stereos up and down the streets all the time. Now we have a couple (of people ) with loud stereos occasionally driving by, and some speeders, of course, but the times I've driven through downtown Hagerstown, I see no improvements." - Hagerstown
This is an interesting question to ask yourself as you drive through the town center and around 40 East and West. I think the simplest answer to this question is yes, the town is improving slowly but surely. The point I would emphasize though is that the progress is slow due to the state that Hagerstown deteriorated into after the 1970's when the rail yard went away. The economy in Washington County has been so bad for so long that there is no such thing as a quick fix to the situation that we find ourselves in currently.
If you look at the renovation occurring at some of the major buildings around North Potmac street, you will see the face of the Hagerstown to come in the next 10 - 15 years. The transformation will not be overnight, but it will come.
Are their loud stereos in the city? Almost all the time.
Are the streets overly congested? Every weekday rush hour.
Is there a high poverty rate? Absolutely.
For all of these reasons I don't live in the city center. Actually I live very close to Smithsburg because I like the space and the people that live around me. But then again, as more money gets pumped into downtown, it will become cleaner, more affluent and appealing to young professionals like myself who want to be in a more urban setting. Small, well maintained cities are great places to live and there are plenty of people who want to be in that environment. Hagerstown is moving in this direction and will get there in the next several years.
It seems that all too often people forget that improvement on this type of scale is not fast moving, nor does it always benefit the people living in the town currently. To revitalize a city of Hagestown's size takes years and lots of capital from outside sources which means the first companies and people to invest in the area are taking a substantial risk. The investors willing to take this step are not easy to find and like almost any business decision there must be a cost-benefit analysis done before any actions are taken. There is enough new money moving into the area now that this analysis is beginning to look favorable to more investors who are slowly trickling into the area.
Keep watching over the next 10 years and I bet you will see an increasing number of projects cleaning up downtown and making it into a much more trendy and cosmopolitant place to live.
Volvo Powertrain to "Idle" 59 More Workers
HAGERSTOWN — The Volvo Powertrain plant in Hagerstown laid off 59 workers this week as the heavy-duty truck market continues to skid, officials said Wednesday.
The layoffs, effective this past Monday, are in addition to the 99 workers idled here in April.
The two furloughs reduce Volvo’s work force at the local plant, which makes engines and transmissions for Mack and Volvo trucks, to 1,278 employees.
Volvo Powertrain is going to "idle" 59 more workers this week as the economy continues to falter during what is now essentially a recession. Between rising fuel and food costs, the demand for large vehicles, construction equipment and large trucks just isn't what it used to be which makes sense. But how one of Hagerstown's largest employers will weather the rest of the storm is an important question that has yet to be answered. Hagerstown is built on these types of businesses, especially since the rail yard was dismantled decades ago. Hagerstown needs these businesses to continue the renewed growth that we have seen over the past several years. The money that these workers spend in town help revitalize the downtown area, clean up the old industrial complexes that no longer are in operation and ensure that Hagerstown's cultural growth continues into the future. I hope that Volvo can find someway to continue their operations well into the future as losing these employers hurts the town, the people and the companies.
Managing Through Good Times and Bad
Sometimes it sucks to be in middle management, other times it seems great because things are going your way and your staff are in the groove. Today was an in the groove kind of day for me on most fronts but on the people front I see myself getting frustrated with a member of my staff and I'm not sure what to do about it.
How do you motivate someone to work harder when they only want to do the minimum to get by? How do you motivate someone in a very technical computer field when they don't have any curiosity or drive to solve a problem? How do you get someone to believe that making the client happy is the goal of our business?
These are the questions I find myself asking about this person over and over again, yet I am still stuck on the fact that I have never had to deal with a programmer that did not have a natural curiosity and drive to solve tough problems. I find that in general, programmers like to be presented with a challenge that they have not seen before, but not this person. Unless you spoon feed them the logic and the information about where they can find information in a database (which they are supposed to be an expert with to begin with) then they sit in their chair waiting for someone to give them the answers. This really bugs me, I am someone who thrives on the challenge of someone saying "prove me wrong" or "how can I make this work?" and I will never understand why people would rather whine about how they don't have enough training to solve a problem when they have all of the learning materials they need sitting on their desk.
I can tell you already that this programmer does not want me to pick up a book and teach myself how to do what they swear is impossible without attending training for weeks. They don't want me to do this because then I will really not put up with the whining and the "no" answers any longer which will lead to one of three things: They will leave the company on their own, they will wise up to reality and begin making the effort or they will leave the company involuntarily. Obviously I would like the middle option to be selected here but I have a feeling it would not be so. The other reason why I don't want to pick this book up and teach myself what they swear is impossible is because if I do then I become the baby sitter for this programmer, checking up on them, making sure they are doing their work and actually not telling people no at the same time. If I stay away from the programming then I also don't get sucked into the trap of me being the only one in the company that can perform a task efficiently and then get stuck always doing it. I have enough going on currently managing the business of the department and not actually doing the technical work for everyone. I've ben there and done that for a long time it feels like so I do not want to let myself go down that road.
I guess when it comes down to it, the problem I face is all about how you get a person who doesn't want to do anything and turn them into someone who will make it happen. So the question I leave for you is, how do you execute this maneuver without causing the staff member to call it quits rather than turning themselves around.
Hagerstown City Council Boosts Incentives for Living Downtown but not the Ones That Matter
The council’s decision will increase incentives from $100 to $150 per month for people who rent downtown properties.
For home buyers, the city will increase the amount of loans that it offers from $1,500 to $2,500 for homes selling at $150,000 or less. Loans will increase from $1,500 to $5,000 on homes selling from $150,001 to $250,000.
This article appeared in the Herald Mail today and it strikes me as odd that these types of incentives are viewed as helpful for revitalizing downtown Hagerstown. As much as I like Hagerstown, what really needs to happen is to have some real business money injected into the commercial spaces that will force the continuing cleanup of streets like Potomac and Franklin. We need to see more commercial services firms move in and setup shop in the town before it can hope to expect to attract residents with the money to put into home improvements, especially with the way the economy is going. The other issue is the incredibly high property tax rate within the city itself which needs to be lowered to encourage growth.
Until the city center is cleaned up a bit and the population starts to shift towards a more middle-income demographic I don't think you are going to see much change in downtown. I would love to see more high-tech firms come to Hagerstown that don't really need to be based in a major city since much of their business is conducted over the Internet. Not only is the commercial office space cheaper but their is a workforce that is begging for these types of jobs to come to the area. Otherwise you have people like myself who are commuting 100 miles a day because finding a Manager of Information Technology job in Hagerstown is impossible. If Hagerstown can attract these firms based on the lower operating costs in the area, then we will see real growth and improvement downtown.
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Jun | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
Tags
Endicott Links
- Binghamton Mets
- Binghamton Philharmonic
- Binghamton Senators
- Binghamton University
- Binghamton Zoo
- Cider Mill Playhouse
- Press & Sun Bulletin
- Village of Endicott
- Visit Binghamton
Hagerstown Sites
- Antietam National Battlefield
- C&O Canal
- Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo
- Gathland State Park
- Hager House
- Hagerstown Aviation Museum
- Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum
- House of Kobe
- The Hagerstown Suns
- The Maryland Symphony Orchestra
- The Maryland Theatre
- Washington County Historical Society
Listen to This!
Politics
Railroads
Spam Blocked
WCG Stats
