Career Mirror -- by Mark Sproxton

Surrounded by windows, computers, phones and general hustle and bustle, the warehouse supervisors are in constant motion. Customer orders have to be printed, staff have to be assigned for each order and the clock has to be watched. With 80 people working tonight in the 230,000 square foot warehouse, the 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift will be busy.

Serca's warehouse supervisors have to ensure items are located, picked and packed before being loaded for delivery to awaiting customers.

Orders have to picked -- sometimes involving the co-ordination of workers in the dry, refrigeration and freezer sections of the warehouse -- packed and sent out the door. The supervisors must ensure everything goes smoothly before the goods are delivered to awaiting customers.

That involves dealing with: pickers, the people who find specific items in the warehouse and physically put it on a pallet at the end of their motorized pallet jack; forklift operators, the people who remain on their machines and load large items onto pallets; loaders, the people who inspect the pallets and ensure they are packed solidly and then prepare them for shipping; lead hands (one step below a supervisor) and so on.

"On the floor I walk around and answer questions, make sure people are working and deal with things as they come up," explains Matt Majchrowski, a night shift supervisor with Serca Foodservice Inc. Added Jarrod Grant, another night shift supervisor: "This makes you do a lot of thinking on your feet." Typically three supervisors work the evening shift.

Sometimes situations, such as running short of a certain kind of pallet, or dealing with personality issues come up. But whatever the problem, chances are Majchrowski and Grant have come across them before. Starting while in high school working weekend daytime relief shifts in the summer, Majchrowski has run the gamut of jobs and shifts within the warehouse in his nine years with Serca. Grant has spent 15 months at Serca as a supervisor, but worked for almost 10 years at another warehouse also in several different capacities. Both received much on-the-job training along the way.

Majchrowski's time in the warehouse has taught him many valuable lessons, including the advantages of working the night shift, which is required in 24-hour-a-day warehouses, and often a starting point for newcomers to the industry. "One of my favourite things is the four 10 hour shifts," Majchrowski said. "I love that. We have some guys who don't want to go to days because there are not many jobs that have daytime 10 hour shifts." Living out of town, he is also able to avoid the morning and afternoon bumper-to-bumper commute to work by taking the night shift.

Grant enjoys the problem solving required under such a hectic atmosphere. "The best part is when we've had a successful day and things have gone well," he said. "(That means) dealing with the challenges that come up and being able to solve them."

Truck trailers wait outside one of the many loading doors for goods from inside the warehouse before deliveries begin.

While Majchrowski and Grant have a good handle on the operations in the warehouse, nothing is routine. "It's a challenge because you don't always come into the same thing every night," Majchrowski said. Both agree dealing with personality issues can be the hardest part of the job.

Those rare situations that don't go smoothly call to test some of a warehouse supervisor's most important skills. "Part of it is patience when dealing with so many things," Majchrowski said. "And you need people skills and leadership skills." The number of workers and the size of the warehouse will typically determine the duties of a warehouse supervisor. As many warehouses are unionized, higher-level positions are often based upon seniority (how long people have been with a company), meaning sometimes promotions aren't automatic. Regardless of position in the warehouse, one important elementis required to move up: a good work ethic.

"There's a chance for advancement if you put in an honest effort and if you do try," Majchrowski said of one reason why he has moved up the warehouse ladder. "There are people I used to work with on the floor who are distribution managers." But Grant said, don't expect to receive an abundance of praise along the way. "Don't get too down if people aren't recognizing good things you're doing because there's so much stuff that has to be dealt with," he said. "People do notice when you do good work."