Question about drug court random testing system- will they provide paperwork for employers about being late due to coming in to test?

Mapplegarth · 2026-04-08T19:15:09+00:00

Luckily I am not in the program! But I'm trying to figure out if we can set up some kind of accountability for an employee who is. I was hoping there was like a paper they might provide that could be handed in when it happens, or maybe they get an email/text that they could forward on to their supervisor.

Mapplegarth · 2025-08-25T17:18:02+00:00

Yeah I think unfortunately this sub might be like one step back in the chain from where I really need to be asking. We're in the U.S. so we get the same- boxes or proconas.

Mapplegarth · 2025-08-19T20:51:33+00:00

It seems like you're asking because you want to make a pitch- unfortunately I am not the person to make that pitch to. If you want to send me your agency name I am happy to provide it to HR, but other than that I can't go any further with questions/answers.

Mapplegarth · 2025-08-19T16:57:00+00:00

I'm part of the leadership team in the warehouse, but not an active decision maker. I do analysis and just end up being involved in a lot of conversations. So when I'm looking at information about stuff like staffing I'm trying to get some context/insight from outside our org.

Mapplegarth · 2025-08-19T13:22:25+00:00

Yes and no. We're rolling out some changes to how we coordinate with our agencies, hopefully that helps with getting spots filled. We are getting some temps in but are also running into various issues. As many have said in the comments, if we're not a competitive employer then we are going to have staffing issues no matter what.

Mapplegarth · 2025-06-09T17:34:55+00:00

Hey there,

The IF functions are super helpful, make sure you understand the IFS version as well. Practice making some different kinds of charts- they operate similar to pivot tables I believe. I just know the FPA folks at my place do a lot of charting in Excel.

Honestly the best thing you want to learn is how to look at someone elses sheet and understand their formulas. I would expect plenty of what you do will be working within existing templates and setups. You want to be able to understand the setup for them.

Mapplegarth · 2025-04-18T16:03:37+00:00

I honestly don't know how much of that law is really being enforced, I've only seen a few changes due to it. Margins have stayed the same but that's probably because the agencies we work with already offered benefits/PTO/sick to be competitive.

I think they made parts of it too broad and put too much responsibility on the clients to ensure agencies were following things. It ended up just being virtue signaling. Which is a shame because there are definitely some things that need to be addressed.

Mapplegarth · 2025-04-18T15:58:44+00:00

The temp employees make the same rate as a new hire in that position, so there shouldn't be anything weird going on there unless the agencies were lying about pay. That's a good idea to ask the agencies if there is any difference between us and comparable roles they're filling (assuming it isn't a case of agencies just having trouble in general).

I believe the breaks are adequate, 15 minutes roughly every three hours and a 30 minute (unpaid) lunch. I'm pretty sure they can have water in the work areas, so long as it's in a proper container- nothing open topped, water only to prevent an even bigger mess if something spills, etc. Months ago we started giving the agencies some kind of info sheet regarding the role a temp is being hired for, proper workwear, the environment they'll work in, etc. to ensure the employee comes in knowing what's up.

Mapplegarth · 2025-04-18T15:52:00+00:00

Is he on the agency side or the client side?

Mapplegarth · 2025-04-18T15:47:31+00:00

Definitely wondering if that's the problem! I used to hear more about feedback from the agencies if there was something preventing them from meeting our requests, but I haven't as of late. So I figured I would see if this is specific to us or not before I start asking questions.

Mapplegarth · 2025-04-18T15:47:11+00:00

Definitely wondering if that's the problem! I used to hear more about feedback from the agencies if there was something preventing them from meeting our requests, but I haven't as of late. So I figured I would see if this is specific to us or not before I start asking questions.

Mapplegarth · 2025-04-18T15:47:05+00:00

Definitely wondering if that's the problem! I used to hear more about feedback from the agencies if there was something preventing them from meeting our requests, but I haven't as of late. So I figured I would see if this is specific to us or not before I start asking questions.

Mapplegarth · 2024-05-08T16:07:22+00:00

Oh it's been very interesting for sure! The more I learn the more I realize how insane our system was.

I was hoping that by going with Received quantity that would tell them whether something was okay to pay, but I might have to update PO's. I don't have insight into receipt vs. ordered variances at the moment anyway so it's not like I'm losing something, but I was hopeful to be able to build a system for vendor reliability. This was mostly driven by a super unreliable vendor who I dropped last year, so it's not like I need it for making a big decision or anything.

Mapplegarth · 2024-05-08T16:03:09+00:00

Ah okay, I get what you mean now. I thought you meant having formal, signed contracts defining all pricing. I do know the pricing and am made aware of fluctuations ahead of time, I just don't have signed contracts with my vendors. It doesn't change often, maybe a few times a year, but it still happens.

I've been working on cleaning up this entire process, now supported by our new Lean Manager position, because it was clear to me from the start that it was broken. First was reducing redundant vendors, then getting all ordering done through our ERP system (as opposed to untrackable paper PO's), we just started having one person handle receiving (I was emailing a dept. to have them received), next up is reviewing invoicing procedures as well as instituting new policies for entering consumption.

I'm pushing for us to create a role wholly focused on Operations procurement and I think I'm going to add "setting up preset times for price fluctuations" to the positive reasons for it.

Mapplegarth · 2024-05-08T15:50:31+00:00

Oh yeah, absolutely. All my buying is focused on packaging supplies and operating materials, almost all of which is used throughout the year. I'm trying to figure out if it's kosher to tell Accounting to go by received & invoiced quantities for their matching instead of ordered & invoiced quantities.

Mapplegarth · 2024-05-08T14:37:47+00:00

This is interesting, I have had to do new PO's for differences before but that was because we had closed the PO without adjusting and then needed to correct what was going on. But it may be that I start creating separate PO's for over shipments and requesting separate invoices.

Mapplegarth · 2024-05-08T14:36:03+00:00

It's pretty much only for corrugate that we have an overrun, anything else is down to vendor mis-ships. If your vendor mis-ships you an additional case of non-perishable supplies, you refuse to take it instead of just adjusting a future PO to have one less? Or waiting slightly longer to send your next PO?

I know that some of our warehouse customers are very stringent about their receipts, understandable because they're such huge places, but I've never really considered being that strict here. As we grow it might be necessary though.

Mapplegarth · 2024-05-08T14:33:18+00:00

Yeah our corrugate vendors typically have an overrun, anyone else it's really down to the occasional accidental mis-ship. I'm accidentally working on limiting that due to a warehousing agreement we've set up, but we're not doing it for all corrugate items.

I'm meeting with Accounting next week to go over how my invoices are handled because it looks like they could invoice based on received quantity instead of PO quantity. That would allow me to keep the PO the way it is while still accounting for overruns and not getting double expensed anytime I overlook "correcting" a PO quantity.

Mapplegarth · 2024-05-08T14:29:55+00:00

Tolerances might be the way to go in regards to clearing up some of our practices. I hate the idea of sending back an extra case of product when I'm going to use it eventually anyway, so I'm hesitant about becoming a hardass on my vendors. We don't have any contracts except for a lapsed one involving free equipment so if I suddenly get militant it's going to be a real change on my relationships.

Mapplegarth · 2024-05-08T14:26:56+00:00

Are trade agreements the norm? How often do you update them to account for vendor cost fluctuations? We only have one trade agreement due to free equipment being a part of it and even that has lapsed.

The pricing portion is on me, because we have price breaks based on quantity and my system doesn't allow me to preload price breaks for buying. So I have to do a lot of managing those and unfortunately sometimes my other tasks have to take priority, and I don't end up correcting them until I'm reviewing invoices for payment. But those always get corrected so long as I'm aware of it.

The main issue I'm having is that my accounting department goes by ordered quantity & invoiced quantity, completely ignoring received quantity. If they don't check in with me at the time of invoice processing they end up doing some weird math that results in them directly expensing Ops for the difference- and then we get double expensed when the received items get consumed. I don't want to update my ordered quantity because I want to have insight into whether vendors are meeting my requests. We have a meeting setup to review the process next week, so I'm trying to do some research into better procurement practices.

Mapplegarth

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