11/12/2025
What are the Round's doing now?
The Round Brothers have retired.
Brother Bruce is living the life of a country gentleman in New Hampshire.
I'm Brother Bill Round (That's me). I am still trying to organize a productive use of my retirement time. I will be spending some time at Hart's Hardware in the near future. The few mornings I spent there were fun. Old customers were great to catch up with. Who knows? Perhaps I could generate a few consulting jobs out of that. Isn't that what retired business people often do?
I saw a (bad) movie at the Woburn Cinema on Sunday. The movie did not interest my wife, so I went alone. What did interest me about my visit was the concession counter. There was a young supervisor obviously training new staff.
I felt like going behind the counter to take charge. Not all the zombies in the building were on the movie screens. Somebody needed to model proper customer engagement, get the lines moving, and make things happen. These kids were in passive move. They did not make eye contact. They appeared to have some idea of what to do, but required repeated prompting to conclude a transaction. The supervisor was just as passive. She may have been there in case a glass counter broke or a popcorn machine exploded. Maybe she had first aid or fire suppression training. She was not trained to instruct her charges to announce "next in line, please."
Bad habits will prevail in an organization if permitted to do so.
I tried to stamp out bad habits at our store and train for the proper behaviors. Kids often came in with very low level interpersonal skills. That's to be expected with young people starting out. I will say that over the last 15 or so years, kids starting off needed much more remedial training and supervision than their predecessors. The training once done by families, neighborhoods, sports, scouting, schools, churches, just plain independent play was missing. It was a very interesting phenomenon, one I talked about frequently. Training is something I liked to do, and I was sometimes successful at it. It was always gratifying to start with a less than outgoing and confident kid to finish with a capable, experienced staff member able to think on his or her feet.
I often joked that I'd like to write an article addressed to the youth of Stoneham entitled "How to Get that First Job." I'd start by stating good behaviors the applicant should display. I'd continue by recommending that the applicant should ditch the parent(s) when applying for a job in person. I would include suggestions about personal presentation and interpersonal skills. There is a tragic shortage of basic social skills under the heading of "stand up, shake hands, say how do you do." I would remind the applicant that he or she is not the center of the universe, that empathy and respect are hallmarks of maturity. You start low in an organization and work you way up through mastery, productivity, and cooperation. If you do not aspire to be the one your fellow staff members are happy to see arrive and your boss relieved to have you in the building, you will not go anywhere in any position.
I'm sure this article would be poorly received, but high school freshmen and sophomores need to be informed. I believe far too many kids are not benefiting from employment at an early age.
Perhaps I could lay it all out from a podium on a stage to an audience. I'm available.
Bill Round
Retired
Round's Hardware (closed and soon to be forgotten)
