Greg Aanes Furniture
  • Info Home
  • FURNITURE CATALOG
    • Beds
    • Barstools
    • Casework
    • Desks and Desk Chairs
    • Dining Tables
    • Smaller and Occasional Tables
    • Seating
    • Serving Tables
  • Blog
  • FAQ
  • About Us
    • Faces
  • Contact
  • Particulars
    • Hardwoods
    • Working Together
    • Seat Coverings
    • Seat Covering Size, Orientation and Considerations
    • Drawings
    • Shipping
    • Utility
  • Info Home
  • FURNITURE CATALOG
    • Beds
    • Barstools
    • Casework
    • Desks and Desk Chairs
    • Dining Tables
    • Smaller and Occasional Tables
    • Seating
    • Serving Tables
  • Blog
  • FAQ
  • About Us
    • Faces
  • Contact
  • Particulars
    • Hardwoods
    • Working Together
    • Seat Coverings
    • Seat Covering Size, Orientation and Considerations
    • Drawings
    • Shipping
    • Utility

Conflict? Reconciling differences?

4/1/2019

0 Comments

 
All this media discussion about conflict and how to deal with it, but I'm not so sure conflict needs to happen or even is desirable. Is conflict a secondary experience, the result of a persons creepy feelings which arise around different ideas and opinions which need to be reconciled so we can function and excel as a group? Whatever that group is- school, committees, work, meetings and so on. Can we move beyond the feelings of conflict and simply see our differences as merely requiring work? Here is a LinkedIn post I was compelled to write after seeing the discussions about "conflict" banking, and how to relax during conflict. Assumptions that conflict is inevitable. 

"Conflict or Adjusting our assumptions and goals? After having just spent some time in a conflict avoidant culture and observing how differing ideas are reconciled while avoiding a feeling of conflict, I think most of us are underskilled at dealing with differences. In other words fears and yucky feelings frequently arise when conflicting ideas need to be addressed. I think as leaders we can do a lot to create a world where differences are an opportunity to reach a higher level of group excellence. Posturing for dominance or puffery  becomes  crass and foreign to the group, while creative thinking becomes infectious and exciting."

I don't think conflict is inevitable at all. Differences in ideas and feelings are inevitable. But those differences do not have to be a threat to our sense of self. After all, isn't the "self" more of an allegation than a fact?
0 Comments

I love making furniture but....

2/24/2019

0 Comments

 
Enough is enough, its time to go skiing and traveling. I'm not getting any younger and the long many days have cornered me into taking a break. My commitment to the business is the same as it has been for the past forty years, but as a well known person said "the mountains are calling". Thus its hut to hut skiing in Norway for a few weeks on a few different trips.

That means no cell or data service, except when I return to marginally populated area between trips, so leave your Emails. Texts will be a mess due to the quantities and organization. Please, just emails!

Upon return: Heckofatrip. It is heartwarming to rediscover that even after 60 the corporeal body still kicks in to meet the world with enough stimulus. In other words as the days progressed I did see increasing strength, fitness and comfort with the cold. It is amazing to find content comfort in skiing in brutal weather conditions. Its probably good they denote the wind speed in meters per second. 26 M/S wasn't intimidating when I didn't know what it was. I found it interesting to be surrounded by our group of twelve and their chattiness but not knowing what was being said save for a few words. Somehow that wasn't frustrating. 
​Sop a few of the hundreds of pictures are below.
Picture
On the way to Fellsbu hut in the Rondane mountains.
Picture
Picture
1400 meters altitude on the Hardangarvidda, just left Kraekkja Hut. Finalkly no wind, but 20 below C.
Picture
Picture
Almost 30 Meters/Second. At that windspeed the tracks ahead of you drift in almost immediately.
Picture






​   Jotunheim 2000

0 Comments

Are You Hiring?

2/13/2019

1 Comment

 
I just received another brief message through Facebook. All it said was "Are you hiring?"

So as I sent off my standard reply, I thought why not post it here also. I'm beginning to think people believe they are doing the best thing by sending out these three word inquiries. That it is nice and efficient of everyone's time. That with enough three word inquiries something will come back.
Are we hiring? I'm always on the lookout for good people. If you are looking to work here take this tip (and these apply to any employer). 1.In person visits are crucial. If we're not worth the time of a visit or at least a phone call we must not mean much to you, and working here means learning a long set of skills. If we are going to devote ourselves to your development, then you mean a lot to us. And we should mean a lot to you.  We hire people, and we want to see our relationship and your skills grow.  We don't hire warm bodies to be a cog in the machine.  Try out a person to person approach to working here! 
1 Comment

The Applicant

11/7/2016

0 Comments

 
Bob applied for a job last week. He looked like the "guy" for our open position: energetic, articulate, focused, and competent. He also seemed to be an amazing fit with the crew in interests and outlooks. And he was stoked to actually work in a furniture shop and learn and learn and learn. Our final words were about pay, and he was shooting for the upper end of what we pay in the shop. After all, someone who would not require handholding and basic training for months or years sounded perfect to me. Assuming I would hear about Bobs solid woodworking skills, I called his references. Often references are reserved and circumspect, obviously treading that fine line of providing useful information and skewing  an opinion against the applicant. Yet this time I found myself chatting with a very real business owner, and we understood each other very well. I gained information about learning styles and actual experience and tool skills. Bob was a greenhorn. A great guy with oodles of potential, but still requiring a serious a training session frequently. His second reference echoed the same ideas.. Lots of potential once he makes it up the ladder.

This isn't some dumb laborer job. There is a lot of skill involved, and a type of skill which can only partially be learned in a classroom or through reading. There are many reasons attaining the rank of "Furnituremaker" requires an apprenticeship and not a college degree program. Lots of tool use, both hand and power, and machinery too. And it all must fit together into a coherent understanding of how to build furniture: structural theory, finish chemistry,  reading the grain, laying out pieces, organizing a job with myriad steps and so on.

I offered the job on a Wednesday. His first question was the pay. I reiterated that $15 an hour was the starting pay because he did not have any work experience with a duration over a year nor documented skills at performing these skills. I would love to raise him up once he could demonstrate his skills to our team.  My antenna went up when he said, hmm I'll have to think about this. 

This is a unique place to work, the crew is exceptional, the work is exceptional, the atmosphere is wonderful. We have  an uncommon collection of bright, fulfilled and passionate people here. Working here can be like getting paid to go to school.
And, the owner is in his sixties now, and needs help with the growing business. In short opportunities exist.

No word by the following Monday so I shot off an email, asking if he was still in the process. Still no word. By now I have let go of any result and mentally moved on. Today I get an email telling me the pay was too low and his quality of life would suffer working for us.

My point is not about Bob being an ungrateful cad. No, it is the all too common dance small business owners end up performing around people who do not have the training, the experience, or demonstrated skills. Often it seems like most of the capable people are sent off to the holy grail of college. That the end all of a career is to make the most amount of money. That learning is below them. That confidence, hubris, is a more important job skill than knowing your trade and flowing with your team. That quality of life is a function of how much money you can earn  NOW.

I'll make sure I stick to talking about wood in my next entry.

Til next week---- have fun and learn a lot.
0 Comments

    Written by Greg.

    Founder and Owner of Greg Aanes Furniture

    Archives

    November 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All
    Business
    Design
    People Dynamics
    Projects
    Used Furniture By Owner

    RSS Feed

Location

Contact Us


Showroom-Office
​2109 Queen Street
Bellingham, Washington 98229
1+360.389.2714 US
​1+604.670.0502 Canada


Picture
​The Shop
​2115 Queen Street
Bellingham, Washington 98229
1+360.389.2714



Choose the email name you wish to send to below and  add it in front of    @nwchairs.com -
Greg, Orders, Office, Marketing, Mfg

Why this format? To foil the heartless spammers who want to make money by other peoples sweat.
​