I have previously posted about trash, when the City passed an ordinance that you had to bring your rolling trash containers from the street back to wherever you keep them. within 24 hours of trash pickup. And you can’t take them to the street until the evening before pickup day.
Fortunately for me, that regulation only applies within the city limits, and I live a happy half-mile outside those limits, in the County. I tend to think that we are a lot more laissez-faire in the County. Plus, I live in the kind of neighborhood where no one gives a rat’s ass about where your trash container is. If you want the front of your house to be advertised by trash, so be it.
So at work, I wanted something to be shredded. My operation was recently audited by the City, so I’m very sensitized to the need for paper trails. I wanted shredding, because they will give you an official “Certificate of Destruction”. I don’t care whether they actually shred it or not. I still have proof that I did my part. (Read: paper trail.)
I’ve used shredding companies before in a different city, and we took all the material to them. Since that time, mobile shredding companies have appeared. I see their trucks on the street all the time. Not terribly surprising when you live in a city full of lawyers.
So I assigned my assistant manager the task of researching mobile shredding companies. She LOVES this kind of detail. It was like, Woohoo! You actually WANT me to Google? Is this a great job, or what?
There are levels of delegation. For instance, we needed some landscaping work done at one point, and I said, find a company and just hire them. Do what you think is best. In this case I said, find a company you like, pick one, but discuss it with me first. Primarily because I didn’t know anything about mobile shredding companies and wanted to be educated. But secondly, there are some times when you have to keep a closer eye on relatively new managers.
She–like my last assistant manager–is so focused on saving money (not that that’s a bad thing)–that she will pinch a penny in the beginning, get shoddy work in return, and then have to spend even more money on someone new to correct it.
But she picked a company and made a recommendation to me. This is a huge improvement! I have finally taught her–don’t give me three choices and expect me to make every decision. I can’t do it, don’t have time for it, etc. The “manager” part of your title means you have to make some decisions, and you have to quit being scared about it.
We went with the company she picked. The cost was $45 if you take the stuff to them, $55 if they send the mobile truck. A quick calculation told me that my time and her time was worth more than $10. I said, send the truck. And they came the same day! I made her go with the driver to see the operation. (Okay, I do care a little about whether they actually shred it or not.)
She was so excited that she took pictures of it on her iPhone. They have this huge truck that is kind of like a regular trash truck, which lifts the container and dumps it into a bin. But there is a shredder inside, so you can actually hear it working.
So this was the best of all possible worlds. The job got done. I got my Certificate of Destruction. She learned something, and had a lot of fun doing it. Is this a great job or what?
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