The Decision Place

Haystack Rocks on the Pacific I walked out of “the building” the other day… one of many that I’d been entering and exiting for over 26 years of my life. Five sites, 32 cubicles, job tasks that helped to add trillions (yep) of dollars to the GDP. The company I worked for was born the same year I was, and we’d spent over half of our lives together. It wouldn’t be the last time I’d exit, that would a couple weeks later. But as I left, I knew it was over.

I mean, what’s a geek to do? I’d given my life, health, and commitment to the company for so many years. It was the third most important thing in my life.

Well, I’d prepared. The Love of My Life and I had been thinking of the day that I’d leave for a while. We had carefully set up our finances for the day that income would be more variable, and we had a defined time where we could do something different.

But heck, over half my life… taking a new step should be scary when one is so set.

Or, maybe not.

I had a long drive home. On the way, I asked the fundamental question: What, over all those years, did I fundamentally do well? When I boiled it all down to basics, I had spent a career making the people around me smarter. That’s had to be useful, right?

A couple weeks later I drove into work, let the hammer fall, and drove home. On the way home, I made up a name and a concept. Okay, so the name didn’t exactly work, but I got close.

So, welcome to The Decision Place. I’d like to figure out how to make you smarter. Not by doing your work for you, but by helping you understand how to look at the data you have to make a decision on what to do. And then to do it.

Let’s go.

I started working as soon as someone would let me. I mowed lawn, shoveled snow, delivered papers… whatever I could do for a buck. I’d put the money in the bank, and I’d save it for… well, I’m cheap. I mostly just saved it aside from comic books and used science fiction.

My first job for someone else was Wendy’s, where I helped to open a new store not long after my 16th birthday. I worked there as many hours as they’d give me until I went off to college nearly three years later. I got to work with some really interesting people, and I learned a ton about how to deal with people from very different socio-economic circles from me, people with very different visions of their future.

So, what future me is likely to never get that opportunity?

Wendy’s (WEN) said that self-service ordering kiosks will be made available across its 6,000-plus restaurants in the second half of the year as minimum wage hikes and a tight labor market push up wages.

It will be up to franchisees whether to deploy the labor-saving technology, but Wendy’s President Todd Penegor did note that some franchise locations have been raising prices to offset wage hikes.

McDonald’s (MCD) has been testing self-service kiosks. But Wendy’s, which has been vocal about embracing labor-saving technology, is launching the biggest potential expansion.

Wendy’s Penegor said company-operated stores, only about 10% of the total, are seeing wage inflation of 5% to 6%, driven both by the minimum wage and some by the need to offer a competitive wage “to access good labor.”

When I talk to teenagers today, I’m shocked at how few of them have ever had a job, let alone have one now. It’s not totally due to the hikes in minimum wages, but that’s a large factor. What I mostly hear is that workplaces would rather spend money on people who would be willing to stay longer and work more than most teens, and that it’s hard for the average teen to prove he or she can work that hard and that long. I had opportunity, and most of the kids I know can’t get their first one.

The work ethic I put into my main job many years later stemmed from my desire to do anything at the Wendy’s to get more hours in the first place. If the floors needed mopping, fine. If someone needed to be there at 6:05AM to open, then great. Heck, I used to go hose down the lot on weekends, and I even remember sanding rust off the outdoor railings and painting them… all for pretty much minimum wage. But heck, three hours of work and I could afford the gas and greens fees to go golfing with my high-school buddies.

I wonder where the future management of the nation will get their first experience? It won’t be at the register of a fast food restaurant anymore.

The Decision Place

Goodbye. And Hello

Opportunity Cost