This factory was severely short on workers. Then it offered flexible work
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The freedom to choose when you work and how much you work, that's a luxury most people don't have, especially if you work in an industry like manufacturing. But attitudes toward work are changing, and more companies are trying to build a more flexible model. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports from northwest Georgia.
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: Sixty-eight-year-old Ruth Ransom thought she was retiring seven years ago when she quit her job at an Amazon warehouse. She went traveling with her husband, lots of cruises. But back at home, with both of them sitting around...
RUTH RANSOM: It was a lot (laughter), you know?
HSU: She found themselves asking each other...
RANSOM: Well, what do you want to do next? It got old. I'm like, oh, I want to go work.
HSU: Ransom learned of an opportunity at a nearby appliance factory building ovens and ranges. They weren't asking for a big commitment. She could sign up for four-hour shifts.
RANSOM: Whenever I wanted to come to work, which was the best thing I'd ever heard.
HSU: Now, some weeks, she works nearly full-time. Other weeks, like when she's caring for her 95-year-old mom, she takes the whole week off. She also gets to decide if she's feeling up for working on the assembly line, which is faster-paced, or in quality control, which is less taxing. Either way, she likes getting out of the house.
RANSOM: I got to keep moving. I got to be physical. It just keeps me going.
HSU: This plant where she works is called Roper. It's owned by GE Appliances. They started taking on part-time workers after COVID out of necessity. Tony Gabbert is director of manufacturing operations.
TONY GABBERT: People were buying appliances in record numbers. It was a great time, great problem to have when you're just selling products so fast that you can't hardly make them.
HSU: The not great problem was that they had lost a lot of workers during COVID. Gabbert remembers telling his boss, we got to try something new. He had learned about a staffing agency called MyWorkChoice. They'd vet a pool of part-time workers who could be trained to fill open shifts. Workers would choose shifts through an app. His boss' response?
GABBERT: Tony, you are crazy for trying that.
HSU: His boss, Bill Good, remembers that conversation well.
BILL GOOD: I did say this is crazy.
HSU: Good is GE Appliances' vice president of manufacturing. He's been in the industry for nearly 40 years. His mantra has long been, you need consistency to build a quality product. And so for generations, the proposition to workers was simple.
GOOD: We have a 40-hour job. We will pay you this amount. This is your benefits. You show up every day, and that is a nonnegotiable.
HSU: And most manufacturers have strict attendance policies. You get points for missing shifts. Too many points and you're out. So allowing workers to come and go as they wish?
GOOD: I'll be the first one to say I was very skeptical.
HSU: But now, Good says, he's been proven wrong. The flexible workers are getting the job done. They've helped enormously as GE Appliances has made new investments and added hundreds of jobs in Georgia. Today, the plant has more than 900 trained workers ready to jump in to cover absences and whenever demand is up. I meet Kwame Crockett on the assembly line.
What are you doing back there?
KWAME CROCKETT: I am plugging wires. Yeah.
HSU: He started out working 20-some hours a week to supplement his other job managing and remodeling properties in a mobile home park. But right now, he's putting in about 40 hours a week. I asked him, why not become a full-time employee, which is an option? He'd earn more per hour and have benefits, including paid holidays, onsite health care, even a 401(k) match.
CROCKETT: I've thought about it. But, like, I never know when my other remodeling or anything might kick up, so I might need a little time off, you know?
HSU: For him, the flexibility is worth the trade-offs. And then there are people like Doris Hamby. She'd worked at the plant full-time for 35 years. After her husband died, she might've retired. Instead, she went part-time.
DORIS HAMBY: That way, I can spend time with the grandkids. And my mama is real sick, so I'm having to take care of her, too.
HSU: Her boss got her back on the same line, so she's doing the same work, although for less pay.
HAMBY: I was making 17 something, almost 18, when I quit. Now it's 15.30.
HSU: But she says being free to set her own schedule makes it work.
HAMBY: People ask me, when you going to retire? When you going to quit? And I say, well - this was last year - at the end of the year. And then this year - when you going to quit? - maybe the end of this year.
HSU: GE Appliances would be happy for her to stay for a while. Experience like hers is what keeps the factory humming.
Andrea Hsu, NPR News, LaFayette, Georgia.
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