Appreciation post: my old lead at the warehouse in Dayton showed me the fork lift trick that got me a raise
I worked order picking at a warehouse in Dayton for about 18 months and kept getting passed over for the forklift crew, then my lead Ray pulled me aside one Friday and spent 20 minutes showing me how to square up the forks before lifting a pallet instead of jamming them in. Six weeks later I was certified and making $2.25 more an hour, which sounds small but it added up to almost $4,700 that first year. Has anyone else had a coworker just hand them a skill like that out of nowhere, and did you ever find out why they picked you?
Ray sounds like a solid dude. Some people guard their tricks because they think it keeps them needed, but the good ones know that lifting up the people around them does not cost them anything. As for why he picked you, probably he saw someone who showed up and did not complain, since that is who leads remember when they get a chance to help. Those twenty minutes changed your whole year and he likely never thought twice about it, which is kind of the best part.