Rachelle Durandisse

The best advice I've received came from my managers who told me that no matter how complex the operation gets, at the end of the day, you're just moving boxes - taking one thing and moving it from one area to another area. The overall message is that the thing you're doing is simple, it's the in-between stuff that makes it complex. So whenever I find myself stuck on some little minute detail, I take a step back and look at the bigger picture, look at the simple thing that's going on, and focus on that for a little bit. This helps me remember that even though decisions feel very heavy in the moment in a really big warehouse, the core task is straightforward, and if I can focus on that simplicity piece, the complexities will kind of fall into place a little bit easier.

I got this job straight out of college and I felt very, very underprepared for the role. I wasn't absolutely sure, I didn't have much management experience, and I wasn't used to having to make decisions. I've made decisions that have cost my site thousands of dollars, and I've made decisions that have helped them save thousands of dollars. So I think the hardest part and my greatest advice is to really remind yourself that it's okay to fail within the first couple of months. It's not going to be easy, and your first job is not going to go exactly as you imagined, but nothing really ever does. It's okay for things not to meet your expectations right away - you just have to be okay with learning and growing into that unexpected piece. My advice is to stick it out, really try your best to stay where you are and gain as much as you can from that role. Even if it's not exactly what you expected or wanted, don't immediately count it out. Really give everything a fair shot and try your best to learn from even the unexpected things, because there's always a learning moment in things you don't want or don't exactly expect.

The biggest challenge in my field is how fast-paced the environment is, which makes it very, very easy to make a mistake. Everything is happening around you so quickly, and you have to make very quick decisions, so of course you're not going to get every single decision correct at the time that it's happening. Sometimes there's a lot of regret, like I should have done this or I should have done that in hindsight. I think the biggest challenge is making a decision and sticking with it, and being able to assure yourself that you made the right decision in that moment. A big piece of it is quick decision making, quick thinking, and just generally backing up your decisions and being able to assure yourself of the decisions you're making.

I have three really big values professionally. Number one is the people aspect - making sure that whenever you're coming into work, you're treating your associates and the people around you with respect, treating them like human beings with lives outside of work who have things and interests that they care about, and not just treating them like a chess piece that you move on a board. It gets so easy to get stuck in that role where you just need them to do something, but you need to relax and remember that these are people with families who love them, and people who come here because they need the money - they're not here to be pawns. The second value is failing fast and failing forward. You're going to have to make a lot of quick decisions on the fly, and you're not always going to make the best decision. It's better for you to make the wrong decision, realize it fast, and then fix it, than to spend hours trying to make a decision in the first place. By that time, you've already missed everything and you end up making no decision, which is worse than a bad decision. The third value is integrity and accountability - making sure that you are first holding yourself accountable before you're holding anybody else accountable. I have a certain set of standards that I hold myself to, and if I'm not holding myself to those standards, I have no right to hold anybody else to those standards. I constantly check in on whether I did things correctly, whether I was speaking to associates respectfully, and if I wasn't matching my standards in that moment, I have no right to expect the same out of somebody else.