My reality has become product safety; specifically food safety. The concept is an industry-driven effort at controlling the quality and safety of the nation’s food supply. And it’s a great idea. After all, how many times have you been at restaurant and seen some poorly trained slob pull an uncomfortable wedgie from his nether regions while making your burrito. Or my recent personal favorite, a worker at a fast food place that licked her finger before pulling each coffee cup from the holder. You know, to get a little extra “tack.”
But it’s more than just the obvious. The Food Safety scheme under the Food Safety Modernization Act is growing and evolving, as if a bunch of drunk college kids had just created the game Monopoly and are making and changing the rules on the fly. And the really drunk kid -the one screaming, “I WANT TO BE THE LITTLE METAL DOG!” – has the most say on which rules are implemented. But all in all it’s a good thing. It’s made our processes tighter and more efficient. I have however, made a rule (stated in our “Commitment to Quality”) that we are neither a government agency or non-profit and therefore will not allow any policy or procedure to interfere with employee safety or company efficiency (that is to say “profitability”).
I could summarize the entire scheme in four words: Compliance demonstration through trending. Trending shows strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. Everything is trended. Employee’s adherence to Good Manufacturing Practices (hand washing and stuff). Raw materials consistency demonstrated through inspections and COAs. Inbound and outbound truck cleanliness. Pest control, including identifying the number and types of each flying victim that finds its way into the light traps (bug zappers) located all over the facility. The list of policies and procedures seems endless and requires involvement from everyone in the company.
Trending has become a habit. Not quite an addiction yet, but a habit. I now catch myself mentally trending things outside of work in what is supposed to be my leisure time. How many perch did I catch versus junk fish on the third reef between 12 pm and 2 pm. Or how much water are the dehumidifiers sucking out of the air in locations around my house. It’s conditioning. I’ve become a trender.
But I’m also a news junkie. I watch national news throughout the day. It’s my “background music” because I can’t stand what passes for music through our office sound system. I follow local news as well. For the past couple of years the local news has been more a police crime report than what had been our lazy-river Mayberry news, highlighted by talk of the county fair and outdoor concerts. The trend is obvious and would appear driven by a demographic change. A large number of inner city people of color have moved to Mayberry because of our open-arm policy, city services, and preponderance of Title 8 housing… not to mention it’s a beautiful place to live.
Instead of looking at Mayberry as a fresh start, many have brought the problems of the inner city with them. Old habits. Gang affiliations. An entitled attitude. Anger. Violence.
Uh oh. That’s sounding like racism.
No, I’m a trender. One who trends. Let’s step back and eliminate the moniker “racism” by trending only what we know based on fact, not the perception of bigots or the rose-colored-glass reality of the proponents of community diversity.
So how could we trend the outcome of the migration to Mayberry from points south? After all, the purpose of trending is all about identifying variables and vulnerabilities that allow the ability to quantify and improve a process. We could use a simple spreadsheet, allowing for simple or complex analysis. Using data taken from police and news reports, as well as demographic information of those involved in crime, there could be the following column headers; Race, Age, City of Origin, Local Address, Gang Affiliation, Weapon Used, Employment status, Entitlement Recipient, Drug Involvement, and (prior year) tax filings.
Other points of interest could include; prior incarceration, cost of law enforcement, adjudication, and incarceration, as well as the cost to the victim. But like all trending it could become more complex and layered than necessary. After all, we’re just looking for a snapshot to trend existing factual data so we can methodically address the issue without imparting personal bias.
Should we be afraid to trend because the data reveals information that makes us uncomfortable? But isn’t that like ignoring a toothache because seeing a dentist might require a root canal?
What’s happening in Mayberry is a snapshot of what’s occurring nationwide but we’ve become conditioned to turn a blind eye to trends that are protected under the weak veil of political correctness. At what point does a trend become fiscally and socially unsustainable? Why as Mayberrians do we feel obligated to tolerate a trend that is simply unsafe, expensive, and detrimental to our way of life? What about the opportunity cost of dedicating personnel and resources that could be used elsewhere that fit with the core values of tax-paying Mayberrians? And why must we allow a trend to continue to flash-point before intervention?
Just putting this thought to pen will undoubtedly brand me a racist by those that couldn’t make it past the sentence on Mayberry’s change in demographic. In reality, I’m just a trender