My Work Life

I was blessed to get an early start in my work life. I went to work at age 14, thanks to opportunity and the ability to recognize and follow my talents and interests.

My work-life had its origins in my childhood. I was homeschooled from age 2 to 7 to read, write and do math as we moved from St. Louis Mo to Texas to Rhode Island to Tennessee and entered grade school at age 7 in New York.

When I was age 4, my uncle taught me how to play the piano.  When I was age 8, I found a bugle in a window-seat in grandma’s house. I watched cavalry movies on TV and learned to play bugle calls. At age 9, I became the bugler for my Boy Scout Troop. This was a small step, but it involved initiative. I was learning that I was free to decide to do something and could do it.

At age 10, my grade school started a band and I got a trumpet. I joined the St. Louis Boy Scout Marching band at age 11 as “first chair” trumpeter. Also, at age 11, I learned to play my brother’s guitar.  At age 13 I won a trumpet scholarship to CBC Military HS. I discovered that initiative could turn into cash.

Also at age 10, I determined that labor union tactics were destructive and needed to change. I placed the blame on management for allowing this to happen. That was the beginning of my interest in labor relations and manufacturing management.

My freshman year at CBC, I was elected Class President and recruited to join the Speech Club where I won gold medals for “Humor”. I was then recruited to be in musicals at St. Joseph’s Academy Catholic girls’ school. I starred in the CBC school play “Time Limit”. I was tapped to be the Drum Major of the Marching Band, a cheerleader for games, school reporter for Prom Magazine, a Yearbook Editor and President of Activities. I graduated as the Band Company Commander.

All of these experiences developed the communications skills and good judgment and leadership I would use in corporate life. I saw opportunities and implemented innovative solutions to improve performance. I was referred to as an “idea guy”. When I entered CBC it was clear to me that our sports teams had the talent to take first place in all sports. I shared this vision with all support groups and set about to coordinate a culture of support to ensure these victories would occur and it worked. Student support surged and CBC won State Championships.  I became interested in high performance teams and confirmed my interest in a Personnel career.

I met the CBC band members the summer before my freshman year and started a Rock Band in 1957 playing guitar and singing. The Band included 2 guitars, 1 saxophone and a drummer. We played 3 nights a week for 3 hours per job at $5 per hour at teen towns and parties throughout high school and each made $45 per week. This paid for my first car and running expenses. I also worked summers on the Admiral Steam Boat.

The summer before college in 1961, my band members were planning to go away to college. I had a scholarship to Berry College, but turned it down to stay home and go to St. Louis U to prepare to become a Personnel Director, a job I became interested in at age 10. Our Rock Band had worked 156 band jobs per year for 4 years and each of us had made $2340 per year or $9360 for the entire 4 years and had fun doing it.  This was a lot of money as household incomes were in the $5,000 per year range. We had played all the tunes that were popular on the radio, but I preferred the Chuck Berry songs.

I was tired of “light rock” and ready to join a dirty 2 horn blues band and play R&B.  I remember sitting at my desk and I prayed “Lord, I don’t want to start another band. I just want to join a dirty 2 horn blues band. Just then the phone rang.  It was a drummer from a dirty 2 horn blues band who wanted me to become their bass player.  I looked up and said, “Thank you Lord.

I joined the Mojos in 1961. We had a guitar, bass, drummer, tenor sax and baritone sax and everybody sang.  We played Little Milton’s club in Herculaneum Mo on Friday and Sunday and other jobs Southeast of St. Louis 4 nights a week.

In 1962, we became the house band at the Livingroom on Gaslight Square and played 6 nights a week until 1965. Bonnie Bramlett was our singer. Chuck Berry joined us for a while in the summer of 1963 and I got to know him. He had a Masters in Math and his family was full of snooty science professors. He was down-to-earth and had a great sense of humor. I earned $5000 per year and that was more than enough to pay for my $1000 per year college tuition. I also worked summers at St. Louis State School and Hospital and Granite City Steel.

I married my soul-mate in 1964. We were introduced by the Mojo drummer’s sisters and we met at a teen town in 1962. The band playing at the teen town was Ike & Tina Turner. We moved in with my mom to save money for a house. Marlene worked as a Dental Assistant. In 1965, I was set to join the US Air Force, but failed the eye exam. We knew our first daughter Lisa was due to be born in 1966, so as a “Kennedy Father”, I was exempt from military service and declined the commission.

In 1965, I graduated from St. Louis U a semester early and took my first day job with United Way as Campaign Director for St. Charles County. I was ready to play Jazz and joined a piano, bass, drum jazz trio. We played on weekends. I also played bass with several other rock bands, orchestras and dance bands.

We bought a house in 1966 next door to my brother and moved my mom with us to be with all her grandkids and be closer to her work. She rented her house.

I left United Way in 1967 after 2 years of 125% attainment and had arranged for the St. Charles Division to be absorbed by the General Campaign. I eliminated my own job. I was able to get to know all St. Louis corporate leaders.

I took my first Personnel Job in at Kearney Electric and handled all functions. I was on a 3-man committee that recommended we close the Kearney plant in 1968 to Atlanta to get rid of the Teamsters Union.  I eliminated my own job. I was fully trained in all Personnel functions and ready to join an elite Personnel Department. Monsanto was the place to go.

I joined Monsanto HQ in 1968. I learned advanced systems, converted the Textile Division job evaluation process to the corporate manual, learned union avoidance policies and turned down promotions to locations. I eliminated my own job. I was fully versed in automated systems and compensation practices and was ready to lead union prevention. Universities were union targets and were ill prepared to prevent unionization. While at Monsanto, I taught night classes.

I founded the St. Charles County Council of Homeowners Associations in 1968. I wrote the Charter and established committees for zoning, public service commission and direct communication with the County Commissioner, who had been my United Way Campaign Chairman in 1966. We formed to give voter input and it worked.  We had 300 subdivisions with 68,000 homes. I held open meetings monthly and kept the phone list for 300 Subdivision HOA Presidents.

I joined Washington U in 1971. I was hired by Bill Danforth 

to establish the Personnel function at Washington U Medical School. Our faculty operated a 5 hospital complex. We had 3500 employees at the Medical School involved in research and patient care.  I received an NLRB petition for election, conducted the campaign and defeated the SEU organizing attempt with 80% of the vote. I received a $10 million grant from NIH for cage washers for the animal care labs and started AALAS certification courses for 90 Animal Caretakers. The goal was to increase productivity and improve research data.

Bill Danforth was made Chancellor and I moved to the Main Campus in 1972 to continue to automate Personnel records to comply with federal regulations and handle union negotiations for facilities and food service employees. Facilities voted to decertify and food service was destined to be contracted out.  I upgraded the compensation system to include local salary surveys, job descriptions and skill-based pay.  The main campus had a law school, engineering school and all academic departments employing another 3500 faculty and staff.  I had accomplished what I came to do and was ready to return to manufacturing.  I did have a great time.

I had joined a new Jazz Trio in 1971. We played weekends and added 2 girl singers in 1973 and became a popular 5 part vocal group. The trio had a Ramsey Lewis sound and the vocal harmonies were pure jazz from Quincy Jones. I still have the CDs from our live recordings. Our fans included the local radio and TV stations who recorded us and the St. Louis Symphony who showed up after their concerts.

Our move from St. Louis in 1975 ended my 18 year career as a professional musician and singer. I was blessed to be able to do this. My band jobs gave me a balance from my home life and day jobs and had provided an extra $4000 per year income, so Marlene could be a stay-at-home mom. I was able to move from Rock to Blues to Jazz and got paid for it.

By 1975, we had 6 children ages 2 to 10 and Kansas gave us a break to boat, camp, buy a horse and focus on the family.

I joined Schwan Foods with a move to Salina Kansas in 1975. I went there to automate them and did. I wrote the job descriptions and established skill-based pay at parody with market rate averages.  I established a Computer Center and automated security with a PC and payroll with magnetic strip cards and a Mainframe modemed to Corporate in Marshall MN.

We expanded the maintenance group to include equipment design and manufacture to automate sauce, cheese and meat application that allowed throughput to triple. We developed the Red Baron Pizza to add to the Tony’s Pizza line. We trained and redeployed assemblers to operate machines and increase ingredient flow. I initiated testing and feedback to the training program that already included transactional analysis. Test scores were very high. All promotions were from within this very overqualified workforce. These were farm kids who did chores, understood equipment and did well in school.

Schwan’s went from $150 million with 3400 employees to $650 million with 3400 better paid employees. Schwan’s eventually grew to $50 billion through acquisitions and sold these acquisitions to pay the inheritance tax of the founder in this privately held company.

I founded the Salina Area Personnel Association to create a local salary survey and became ASPA District Director for Kansas in 1979 and columnist for Kansas Business News.  Marlene and I became Marriage Encounter Leaders in 1977 and Engaged Encounter Leaders in 1979. I became the Liturgy Chair and Choir Director at St. Mary’s Church. Marlene became the Pool Manager at the Elk’s pool. The kids were thriving with our camping, boating and horseback riding along with sports, cheerleading and theater performances.

I joined Rickel Manufacturing in 1979 to run off the UAW and did.  We sold Rickel in 1983 because the Japanese were coming to the US to dump heavy agricultural equipment. The kids were ages 10 to 18 and it was time to move to Atlanta.

I joined Hayes Microcomputer Products in 1983 with a move to Atlanta GA to manage the ramp-up and did. I avoided CWA union organizing attempt, converted the medical plan to self-insured, established the policy manual, founded the Metro Atlanta High Tech Personnel Association to establish a local compensation survey, established a Nurse-managed HMO and an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. We took employment from 150 to 1200 and revenue from $35 million to $220 million.  When I joined Hayes, I was enrolled in a 2 year, on-line fellowship program in strategic studies and completed it in 1986. My wife Marlene entered Dental Hygiene School in 1983 and graduated in 1986. Our 6 kids ranged in age from 10 to 18 in 1983.  We continued to give Engaged Encounter Weekends in Atlanta. We had accomplished what I came to do.

I joined Electromagnetic Sciences in 1986 to support the Reagan defense initiative. I took employment from 350 to 1200 and revenue from $35 million to $200 million and grew a non-defense subsidiary to automate warehousing. On the defense side, we saw our inventions displayed in the Gulf War in 1990 on CNN. We developed Computer Integrated Manufacturing. I had served as HR Chair on the American Electronics Association Board with the electronics manufacturing CEOs who kidnapped me to start a consulting practice. I had accomplished what I came to do.

I started my Private Consulting Practice, NTL HR Management Consulting in 1993 and operated it until 2017.

My interests were in “turnaround management” and my motivation was accomplishment.  In corporate life, I would join companies to do what they needed and when I had accomplished what I set out to do, I moved on. I had always been an internal consultant and when I was kidnapped by 6 electronics companies to begin a private consulting practice, I knew that was a good fit.  I used a home office to save rent and travelled to customer facilities as needed.  A lot of my work involved recruiting engineers, handling regulatory compliance, writing policy, job descriptions and process documents, acquisitions, expansions and start-ups.  All of my customers were referrals and I never made any sales calls. I did my own taxes as a “sole proprietor”. I worked 60 hours a week and billed monthly. I had no employees. My focus was to achieve maximum results with minimum costs.

The 6 companies became 46 companies from 1993 to 2017.  Several were ongoing for the entire 24 years and several included involvement for multiple years. I pushed ISO 9000 Quality systems, skill-based pay systems, applicant testing, object oriented software development, lean management manufacturing process mapping, teams, schematic capture of bill of material CAD systems, targeted automation, Laser-reading Coordinate Measuring Machines for automated parts inspection and we solved the US product quality problems by 2005.

In 2009, Marlene and I began receiving Social Security and were able begin to cut back on work. I began to train my customers’ internal staff to assume the functions I had been performing to get ready to retire. I prepared some companies to be acquired and others to acquire other companies. I saw Atlanta Metro gain 100 electronics companies in the 1980s only to lose most of them by 2016 as product development cycles were completed and companies off-shored their most valuable enterprises. I am encouraged that Tariffs will bring manufacturing back to devastated rural US cities and allow us to again make all that we consume.

In 2011, I started the Dunwoody GA Tea Party and began publishing this blog. The purpose of the blog is to cover the news you need to know and don’t get from the US media, because they don’t want you to know the important stuff.

Everyone’s life is different, but I hope that my most unusual life will have some relevance in helping you identify how your unique motivated abilities mesh with your own work life and realize how soon these pieces fall into place.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader