Being there
“We fish the Naknek for the beautiful Alaska Coho Salmon. It’s the wild, wild west on that river. All year we prepared for those few hours when they are running. If those nets are not out when it starts, we lose everything. It is all about being there every waking minute.”
John Eldridge
Commercial Fisherman
King Salmon, Alaska
Like the Naknek River of Alaska, a garden store, during the preparation for and the actual planting and growing season, can be a thrill a minute for the manager and the staff. There just are not enough hours in the day to prepare it and service it all for the gardeners. The manager has to be on the tip of the spear during those crucial weeks that account for nearly all the success of the business. Driving away at closing time is for another kind of business, not a garden store. We, at green garden gates, recognize this fact and it must be a given for the managers that operate our stores.
We require our store managers to be in residence, to live on the grounds of the business for a minimum of three spring and summer gardening seasons. We believe that, with this requirement, the manager will remain vigilant to the operation of the facility, be prepared to correct any problems immediately with the facility and business, and further commit him or her to the success of green garden gates. Although, our model is that of a multi-store national organization, we place great value in the concept of a “mom and pop” business. We want undivided and total attention to the store. We want the manager to be bound to the store, with no other distractions that could cause green garden gates to be allowed to drift away from the task at hand, the sale of plants and plant care products to the gardeners of the area.
"Only when you step out of the field, can you see the mud on your feet"
Chinese peasant woman to her children
on breaking away and finding a new way of looking at life
We also believe that if the manager is obligated to “feel it, hear it and touch it” at all times, he or she is best able to observe, correct, train, and review the activities of the staff. The manager, with this residential requirement, is also in the best position to change or modify the model of green garden gates for the stores operating now and in the future.
Each green garden gates is designed and built with a modestly spacious apartment for the manager fully furnished and equipped, complete with satellite television and high speed wireless connections. It can accommodate the manager, a significant other, and a child. It has an outdoor play area as well as parking facilities. As part of the compensation, it is provided to the manager on a year round basis free of charge, never to be sub-leased. It is contractually agreed that the manager, upon termination for any reason is to vacate the apartment, unconditionally, no more then twenty four hours following a termination. A reserve fund from the salary of the manager is held for any damages or repairs to the apartment and contents.
At the completion of the third season residency on the site, the manager has the opportunity to continue with the apartment or move off site. A new manager will be chosen to take up residency. At no time will a manager be living off-site during the planting and growing season.
There are several exceptions to this requirement. First, if the manager is required to leave the store and apartment for an extended medical emergency. In this case, the assistant or one of the four owners will occupy the residence and operate the business. Second, if the manager leaves the apartment for a holiday which can only occur after the spring planting season, during the summer months. Third, if the store is closed with no retail activity as in, perhaps, the winter months. The manager may move to another residence in the immediate area as long as there will be “continued and regular” vigilance to the building and grounds of green garden gates.
We require our store managers to be in residence, to live on the grounds of the business for a minimum of three spring and summer gardening seasons. We believe that, with this requirement, the manager will remain vigilant to the operation of the facility, be prepared to correct any problems immediately with the facility and business, and further commit him or her to the success of green garden gates. Although, our model is that of a multi-store national organization, we place great value in the concept of a “mom and pop” business. We want undivided and total attention to the store. We want the manager to be bound to the store, with no other distractions that could cause green garden gates to be allowed to drift away from the task at hand, the sale of plants and plant care products to the gardeners of the area.
"Only when you step out of the field, can you see the mud on your feet"
Chinese peasant woman to her children
on breaking away and finding a new way of looking at life
We also believe that if the manager is obligated to “feel it, hear it and touch it” at all times, he or she is best able to observe, correct, train, and review the activities of the staff. The manager, with this residential requirement, is also in the best position to change or modify the model of green garden gates for the stores operating now and in the future.
Each green garden gates is designed and built with a modestly spacious apartment for the manager fully furnished and equipped, complete with satellite television and high speed wireless connections. It can accommodate the manager, a significant other, and a child. It has an outdoor play area as well as parking facilities. As part of the compensation, it is provided to the manager on a year round basis free of charge, never to be sub-leased. It is contractually agreed that the manager, upon termination for any reason is to vacate the apartment, unconditionally, no more then twenty four hours following a termination. A reserve fund from the salary of the manager is held for any damages or repairs to the apartment and contents.
At the completion of the third season residency on the site, the manager has the opportunity to continue with the apartment or move off site. A new manager will be chosen to take up residency. At no time will a manager be living off-site during the planting and growing season.
There are several exceptions to this requirement. First, if the manager is required to leave the store and apartment for an extended medical emergency. In this case, the assistant or one of the four owners will occupy the residence and operate the business. Second, if the manager leaves the apartment for a holiday which can only occur after the spring planting season, during the summer months. Third, if the store is closed with no retail activity as in, perhaps, the winter months. The manager may move to another residence in the immediate area as long as there will be “continued and regular” vigilance to the building and grounds of green garden gates.
Being Gone
“I wish the manager would just get out of here for a couple of days. She is driving us crazy”
Sally Folk
Garden center employee
Nebraska
There are dark sides to the manager being at the store at all times. The staff needs to breathe, to be, at times, free from the watchful eye of a manager. The employees need to express themselves, spread their wings, create and be empowered to operate green garden gates. We understand that it is difficult when the manger is always on the grounds. Additionally, the manager gets tired, irritable, and loses focus by being chained to the store. It is the policy of green garden gates that the manager must leave the site for two consecutive of the slower business days each week and not return (unless there is an extreme emergency at the facility) until the close of business day on the second day. We want our managers to have another life to unwind and relax each week and blasting them off the site is the only way to do this.
#6 Our managers are to live on site at green garden gates during the growing and gardening season. Our managers are to have two consecutive days off per week during that season.
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