Warehouse and Operations as a Career

Hello all! Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I’m Marty, and I’m glad you’ve chosen to spend a few minutes with us today.   Now, I was sitting down the other day thinking about a simple question: Why do we work? Of course we work for a paycheck. But when you dig in a little deeper, there’s more to it. A lot more, actually.   So today, I want to share some thoughts on three thing...

Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I want to start off by saying a huge “thank you” to every truck driver out there. This week, Sept 14 th thru the 20 th , is National Truck Driver Appreciation Week here in the states, and I can’t think of a better time to talk about just how important our drivers are, not only to the supply chain but really to every single one of us. The food o...

Here we are in week 37, about to end the 3 rd quarter of 2025. I’ve always found this time of year to be an important part of the year in the light industrial fields. The kids just went back to school, people are starting to think about, and plan for the upcoming holidays. I noticed this week that jobs are opening up. Staffing agencies are flooding the social media job groups with ads, and all the...

Warehouse and Operations as a Career the podcast. Marty T Hawkins here. We need to get to a lot of questions being sent in regarding several of the positions we’ve been speaking on so I’ll try and get something put together in the next couple of weeks. I had to charge our equipment over at the distribution training center this week, so I thought of today’s battery changers and how different...

Hey everyone, Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career. As we continue our series on job descriptions, task, and their opportunities, I thought we’d stick with transportation as a topic. Tonight, I want to dig into a position that doesn’t always get the spotlight but is absolutely critical across several industries, the driver helper. It’s one of those roles that can look a little diff...

When we talk about logistics, warehousing, and distribution, transportation is the vital link that keeps everything moving. Without trucks on the road, vans on the streets, and skilled professionals planning routes, freight doesn’t move, and shelves don’t get replenished. While warehouses store and organize, transportation makes the connection to customers, businesses, and ultimately, our communit...

Here we are in the middle of the 3 rd Quarter already. Schools are starting back up here in the states, the summer vacations were great, visiting with all the friends and family was a bit exhausting and everyone’s getting ready for that final push through to the holidays next quarter.   I mention all that because this is a unique time of year regarding employment, careers, and opportunities...

Welcome back to another episode of Warehouse and Operations as a Career . I’m Marty, and today we’re going to shine a well-deserved spotlight on a role that might not always get the recognition it deserves—but one that most large warehouses relies on.   We’re talking about the floor sweeper/scrubber, the man or woman behind that buzzing machine who glides through the aisles after a long shift, pre...

It’s week 31 of 2025. Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career , I’m Marty, and today we’re diving into two important yet often misunderstood roles within the warehouse world—Inbound Dispatchers and Outbound Dispatchers.   Now, if you’ve worked in a distribution center, chances are you’ve interacted with one or both of these dispatch teams. But for those new to the field—or...

Hey all, Marty T Hawkins here, and welcome back to another episode of Warehouse and Operations as a Career ! We’ve spent the mid-week in Bolingbrook Illinois, and I am dreading heading back to the Texas July heat this evening! Today we’re taking a closer look at three important but often underrated roles within the warehouse. These are the kinds of jobs that don’t always get the spotlight, but if...

Thanks for stopping in at Warehouse and Operations as a Career again, I’m your host Marty and we have a lot of ground to cover today! I hope everyone is having a great week.  Can you believe we’re almost through the 1 st   month of the 3 rd   quarter of 2025 already. What week are we in, let’s see, 29, week 29 is coming to a close.   Today I thought we’d talk about two different positions. L...

Hey again, Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career. We work, that’s how the world works. I’ve had the fortune of working in the light industrial industry or the warehouse and transportation fields for my entire career, over 45 years. I’ve errored, messed up, been irresponsible, negative at times and I consider myself more than lucky for making it through it all, and having the m...

Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I’m Marty, and it has been a bit. Life and careers both are why we work. Over the last 7 months, well, off and on longer than that I guess, referring to my lack of weekly episodes, a lot has changed in both life and careers for a lot within our manufacturing, production, and distribution industries. Today I’d like to talk about just a few of the areas that I’d...

We all work to pay our bills and provide a better living for our families.  Some of us, I hope most of us, are fortunate enough to enjoy our jobs so much that it isn’t work at all.  I’m Marty with Warehouse and Operations as a Career and today I’d like to start off with a question from a gentleman here locally. You know, we’re often taught and trained how to do our jobs, we’re given all the standa...

Hello everyone, Marty T Hawkins here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career.  I want to sincerely thank you for checking in with us each week and I hope we mention something that will affect your career in some kind of positive way here today!    I want to share something real quick.  I went to the grocery store today, a national chain, it’s close, convenient and frankly just easy for me to get...

Marty T Hawkins back with you and another episode of Warehouse and Operations as a Career.  Is everyone having a fabulous week so far? Today let’s talk about a few of the things that we as employees sometimes must deal with, many times things we possibly bring on ourselves.  Throughout my travels each week I hear about lost jobs, NCNS, layoffs, and a lot of reasons why individuals have loss those...

Hey hey all, you found Marty and Warehouse and Operations as a Career here again. Here we are in week 50 of 2024. I just realized we haven’t talked about our 2025 goals or plans yet. Maybe we can get that in over the next few weeks. I’m big on goals and planning, and I’m pretty much right on target for the year. Anyway, before I get started running down that path, I’ll get back to today&#821...

It’s been another great week hasn’t it! I’m Marty and I’d like to thank you for joining us again here at Warehouse and Operations as a Career.  This week let’s spend a few minutes on controlling expenses.  I had a conversation last week with a V.P. of Op’s about a facility that had had over 1000 short on truck cases the previous week.  That’s a huge error ratio and creates a very real expense to t...

Hi all, it’s Thanksgiving here in the states, a time to spend with family and friends, a time to slow down a bit and reflect on what is really important in our lives and be thankful for what ever that is.  We’re working on a few great episodes with some long-time listener’s I consider subject matter experts in the coming weeks that I’m super excited about. But for today, well, I have a few q...

Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career, I’m Marty and I thought we’d talk about finding work today, something that’s not always easy. Over the last month or so I’ve received so many questions from job seekers, a lot of frustration with the system and hiring processes, being interviewed, and feeling ghosted, being told your overqualified or under qualified etc. Looking for emplo...

Hi again to all from WAOC, I’m your host, Marty T Hawkins, and I’m glad you decided to spend a few minutes with us talking about our light industrial careers. I was going to speak to logistics today, but, well, I’ve had a few conversations this week that pushed me to rethink that. Oh, and for all the WAOC subscribers out there, I have to apologize for the technical opportunities with last week&#82...

Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career!  I hope you enjoy our show each week and we’re offering up something you can take away from it and it helps you in your career some how or way.  We have a lot of fun sharing our experiences and really enjoy getting to throw in an opinion or two every once and a while!  Don’t forget about our Facebook & Twitter page’s where you can find us @...

Have you ever heard that you only get one chance to make a first impression?  I’m Marty T Hawkins and I’d like to thank you for checking in with us here at Warehouse and Operations as a Career!  Whither you are a Supervisor or a lead, an Employee, Recruiter or an HR Generalist, maybe you’re in Benefits, we’re all some of the first people our new and existing associates see.  We greet them, walk th...

Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career. How has your week been? Productive, Challenging, Informative, Positive, and Safe is my answer! I hope each of you feel the same way. However, I’ve read about, and spoken with a few people that, well, I’m going to say haven’t had such a positive experience this week. I’ve heard from or read about struggles with or opinions about staffing agencie...

I’ve had several questions about order selecting lately, I’ve been meaning to get to them, and a young job seeker wrote, I’ve pulled orders at 3 companies before so I have a lot of experience, but I’ve applied at this place offering XX dollars an hour and they say I don’t have the experience. It’s a lot of money and I want that job. So today let’s talk about all the different task recruiters are a...