"The Times They Are A Changin'..."

Bob Dylan was right, when he wrote that lyric. One thing always remains constant: change. Have you ever thought about how often, and how many different ways, we use the word “change”?

Change management, change your oil, change your underwear, “do you have any change?”, change jobs, change schools, career change, “going through the change”, change machine, change gears, “time for a cool change” (that’s a lyric from the Little River Band, for those of you who don’t know good music!).

I made a career change over 20 years ago. For the past twenty years, I have been in Human Resources. While in HR, I have changed companies 5 times, with 3 of my former companies no longer existing. When I first went into Human Resources, it was called “Personnel”. I started as a Personnel Assistant, became an Assistant Personnel Director, Personnel Director, Division H.R. Manager, Corporate H.R. Manager, and on up the “proverbial ladder” to the job I have today. There have been a lot of changes in my life “within” H.R. over the past 20 years.

But this blog isn’t about me.

Rather, it is about someone who worked for me when I had my first job as a Personnel Manager. I was working for WestPoint-Pepperell at the time, and I was assigned to The Advanced Fabrics plant as their Personnel Manger. When I arrived, I found that I had no benefits coordinator….that would be done by me….no safety/health coordinator….that would be done by me….no training manager….that would be done by me….and 1 part-time clerical person who was a student at Auburn University.

The interesting thing about my part time clerk was basically two-fold. First of all, the clerk was male, and second, his grandfather (whom he and most of the plant called “Pe-Paw”), was the retired Plant Manager who had basically started the business for West-Point Pepperell.

His name was Roddie, and he and I shared an office. My desk and his desk faced each other, and we shared a tape dispenser, stapler and in/out tray. I always thought that was kind of funny, because he would take mail, or forms that were for me, and reach over and put then in my “in” tray. I never understood why he didn’t just hand them across the desk to me.

Roddie was smart, and could write very well. I remember asking him one day what he wanted to do with his life….and his response was, “I don’t know. I might just work here for the rest of my life. It was good enough for Pe-Paw.” I told him he should think about Human Resources, and he told me he would.

Changes came for me and for him. I don’t think that I ever spoke directly to Roddie again after I left Advance Fabrics in 1989. The winds of change took me all across the southeastern United States, and the winds of change took him out of the world of textiles. But we both learned many things from Advanced Fabrics. I learned a lot about human resources. He learned a lot about weaving and spinning.

Today, he weaves details and spins story lines like the professional he is. He’s changed a lot since the days I knew him as Roddie. Because today, he is known as “Rod”.

Rod Bramblett. The voice of the Auburn Tigers. My, how things have changed.


War Eagle!

WJLaneSr