My interest in Personnel started early. When I was 10 years old, I was stting on the front porch of my grandfather’s house with my uncles reading the Sunday newspaper. The front page showed a picture of a burnt-out automobile. Someone had assassinated the Steamfitter’s Union Presidenr with a car bomb. I turned the front page toward my uncles and asked “What’s this ?” They answered “Mafia” in unison. I asked “Has the Mafia taken over the unions?” They answered “Yes” in unison.
I said “We are doing this all wrong. We should not allow the Mafia to run unions and sabotage our own industries”.I asked “Who allows this ? “Personnel” they answered. My anger over this motivated me to find out more. I gathered more information about what Personnel Managers do, how much they are paid and what laws allow unions to invade companies. I also read a book published in 1920 titled American Communist Goals. I had discovered my “calling”.
My other interest was in music. My uncle Billy taught me to play piano by ear when I was 4 years old. I taught myself to play the bugle at age 6. I joined the grade school band and learned the Trumpet. I was a Boy Scout Bugler at age 10. I was 1st Trumpet in the 300 member Boy Scout band. I won a Trumpet scholarship at age 13 to Christian Brothers College Military High School, my family school. I had also taught myself to play guitar.
The
summer of 1957 I spent Saturdays marching with other Freshman Band members on
the CBC West Field. I met my fellow classmates and we started to form a Rock
Band. We had our first band-job in September 1957. I was in charge of the music
and preferred Chuck Berry and Ray Charles. I delegated booking to my Saxphone
player from St Louis U High and my other guitar player from Chaminade High
School. They were connected to several Catholic Parishes who had Teen Town
dances on Weekends. My drummer was a Sophomore from CBC.
We played 3 nights a week at teen towns, parties, weddings, country clubs and roadhouses. Our band outfit was formal white sport coat, black pants, white shirt and continental tie. We called ourselves the “Continentals”. We charged $60 for a 3 hour job and averaged 3 night per week throughout high school.
When I was a Freshman at CBC our homeroom teacher asked: “Who knows what they want to do as an occupation?” Two of us stood up. John Sheridon said “Dentist”. I said Personnel Manager in manufacturing.
I knew that companies needed to develop a “culture” to unite its employees. I chose an experiment. Our Football and Basketball Teams were State Champions. I was in the school band and noticed that although we marched and played at halftime for home games, we did not play for away games. I organized a Dixieland band to play at away games and recruited convertible owners to decorate their cars and parade to away games with the band playing from the convertables. When we arrived, we sat in the stands and played throughout the games. All the football players thanked me for doing this. I knew that extra support motivated them and having the backing of the students was critical. Our teams continued to improve. This support spread to the school newspaper and poster club. We continued to win State Championships after that. I learned how to establish a “culture”.
I
was chosen to be President of my Freshman Homeroom. I was tapped to join the [NL1] Speech
Club my Freshman year and won gold medals for Humorous Interpretation. In my Sophomore year I was tapped to star in
a stage presentation of “Time Limit” the only school play they presented. I was
tapped to join a group to appear in plays at St. Josephs Academy. My Junior year I was tapped to be the Drum
Major of the Band and serve as a Cheerleader. My Senior Year I starred in St.
Josephs presentation of the Makado and was tapped to be CBC Prom Magazine
Reporter President of Activities, A Yearbook Editor and Band Company Commander.
All of this helped me develop the judgment, leadership, writing and presentation skills I would need as a Personnel Manager.
Having done all of this in high school, I could concentrate on working my way through college as a musician and learning more about human nature. I commuted to college, lived at home and spent no time on “college life”. When I entered college I joined a Dirty Two Horne Blues Band and ended up working 6 nights a week at the Livingroom on Gaslight Square. I also took 20 hours of class per semester. I married in August 1964 and graduated in January 1965 and took my first job. I was hired by United Way as Campaign Director for St. Charles County and reduced my band jobs to 2 to 4 nights a week playing jazz and blues. I enjoyed 2 years attaining 125% of goal and consolidated St. Charles into the St. Louis campaign.
I entered Personnel in 1967 and held jobs in manufacturing companies. Kearney National made equipment for Power companies. I recruited engineers recommended they relocate the plant to drop the Teamsters and they did. In 1968 I moved to Monsanto Chemical HQ Textile Division to administer Compensation to prevemt unionization. I converted their job evaluation system to the Monsanto system. In 1971 I joined Washington University to prevent unionization and defeated the SEU attempt. I also computerized their data, wrote job descriptions, added local wage survey data and wrote the Compensation manual.. In 1975 I joined Schwan Foods in Salina Kansas to automate the pizza plant and establish employee development. In 1979 I joined Rickel Mfg to rid them of the UAW and did. In 1983 I joined Hayes Microcomputer Products in Atlanta GA to establish a compensation system, establish policy and support hiring. I defeated a CWA attempt. We grew from 100 employees and $35M to 1000 employees and $200M . In 1986 I joined Electromagnetic Sciences. We grew from 300 and employees and $35M to 1200 employees and $200M.
I chose jobs based on what companies needed. I am inner directed and accomplishment driven. I routinely turned down promotions that inturrepted my project goals. I was amassing a body of knowedge and experiences that allowed me to open a consulting practice in 1993 and operate it until 2017.
In the 1980s, Personnel became Human Resources. Changing names signals a change in direction. Those of us who had been called Personnel Managers became Human Resource Managers. ASPA, the American Society for Personnel Administration became SHRM, Society for Human Resources Management. In the 1970s I was tapped to serve as ASPA Director for Kansas and served until 1983 when I moved to Atlanta Georgia. The Atlanta ASPA group had changed its name to SHRM and my new title became Manager Human Resources.
I needed local wage and salary surveys to upgrade the wage rates at my new company. I contacted the Atlanta SHRM group to see why they didn’t have a wage survey. ASPA members were always required to work in personnel departments, but the Atlanta SHRM group allowed consulting companies, temp services and others to join. They focused on medting attendance because nothing exceeds like excess. I had to become the founder of the Metro Atlanta High Tech Personnel Association and gathered up 40 electronics manufacturing companies to participate in a wage survey and monthly meetings. I did limit membership to HR staff and banned membership of consultants and temp agencies. I added a termination clause to dissolve the group after the design cycles were completed. I stopped attending MAHTPA meeting with I opened by consulting practice, but got a call from them to consider termination. We met and confirmed that other surveys were available. We opted to form a second SHRM group in Gwinnett County. I served as Program Chair for the first year.
I ended my corporate career in 1993 and opted to be self-employed. I did watch Human Resources and the quality of CEOs and Boards decline. This is reversable, but could take a long time. Many good Managers have resigned from these Woke companies. Companies would be wise to abandon their destructive ideologies and return to employee development, product value and customer focus.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
No comments:
Post a Comment