I can’t remember when I first heard this little saying, but I recited it a lot over the years to my kids as they were growing up (and sometimes messing up): “The poorest excuse in all the lot was, ‘I didn’t think’ and ‘I forgot.’”
Retailers — well, any employer — have heard all the excuses for why their charges come up short of expectations.
In the 1988 film “Stand and Deliver,” inner-city Los Angeles high school calculus instructor Jaime Escalante preached, “No free rides, no excuses.” The unconventional, yet successful teacher reminded his students that their future employers would not be interested in excuses, and neither was he.
It’s tough love, all right, but the result was hundreds of kids earned college credits in his Advanced Placement course every single year.
As produce professionals, we’re also teachers and mentors who strive for excellence in performance as well. And yes, we cringe at excuses too.
I remember taking over one store location and discovered on the first day that one of my seasoned full-timers failed to rotate a display. In fact, he didn’t even try.
“C’mon,” I said. “Green bananas on top of ripe ones?”
“Uh, I have to tell ya, I’m color blind,” he said. “I can’t tell the difference.”
I tried to be patient and told the clerk that if I were so afflicted (and I had my doubts that he was), I would make darn sure that I rotated everything, every stocking trip.
While I believe in second chances, I also think there’s a small percentage of workers who work harder at getting out of doing a job correctly than doing it properly in the first place. He was one of these, and it wasn’t long before he transferred to the dry grocery department. I had my doubts he’d even make it there.
Excuses come in all shapes and forms. I had a clerk once who had an annoying habit of calling in sick on the day following his regularly scheduled two days off. I put in extra time to arrange his two days off so they were together as he requested, and this simply took advantage of my good faith efforts and put the crew in a bind. To be certain, people get sick, but when an employer sees such a pattern, then you can only tolerate just so many excuses.
Produce departments by nature are typically close, small-knit teams. Overall, produce employees enjoy their job; they want to be on the team and usually get along well with one another. On average, produce departments report the fewest on-the-job injuries, have the fewest attendance problems and tend to be very coachable.
However, it’s up to the produce manager to set the tolerance level for excuses.
Some produce managers spur productivity and effective shifts with good-natured competition — “Steve set the rack this morning by 8 o’clock sharp, people. I think that’s a good time for everyone to shoot for!” — or by recognizing a great team with the occasional box of doughnuts or bagels to celebrate. Anything to reinforce outstanding effort, in a roundabout way, helps minimize excuses.
Although, every once in a while, an imaginative or creative excuse catches everyone off guard.
In my sophomore high school year, the football team I played for was undefeated, perhaps partly due to our coaches’ no-nonsense discipline. We even practiced on Saturdays to stay sharp.
One Saturday morning our star running back, Braxton Lee, hustled onto the field a good 20 minutes late. This meant the entire team was doomed to run extra, punitive wind sprints.
“Lee!” the coach hollered. “So glad you could join us. Why are you so late?”
The quiet, usually dependable Lee hung his head and said, “I tripped in a muddy gopher hole and had to go home to change.”
The coaches stared at each other and tried to hide their smiles. A gopher hole? The excuse was so unique, so off-the-wall funny that there was no way it was just conjured up.
Afterward, it became an ongoing, team-unifying reference — as in, nothing can affect our performance, not even a muddy gopher hole. Years later in the produce aisle, I thought about this every time someone came up with an exceptional or bizarre excuse.
And you must admit that, while it’s good management to deflect most excuses, there are indeed a few you must laugh about, if for nothing else but to ease the tension.
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His more than 50 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.