Exploring Blue Collar Life: From Farm to Foundry with Jason Haines

Jason Haines shares how his journey from working on his grandpa's farm to thriving at a bustling foundry brings a warm sense of nostalgia, a spark of camaraderie that we believe resonates deeply within the blue-collar community.

Building on the growth of the manufacturing industry over the past decade, Jason provides an incredibly insightful look into the evolving dynamics between the older and younger generations. Trade schools are the bridge, their role increasing in importance as we strive to make the industry more appealing to Gen Zers. 

Highlights:

3:25 - Jason’s start into blue-collar work and how sometimes you need to try things before you decide they will work for you. 

8:31 - How showing respect and doing little things as a leader will make your team work together better. 

6:05 - How not promoting trade school is also impacting the future of blue-collar work.

10:39 - How you should always learn to network even within niche industries. 

Steve Doyle:

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Brad Herda:

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Jason Haines

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Welcome to Blue Collar BS, a podcast that busts the popular myth that we can't find good people, highlighting how the different generations of today the boomers, gen X, millennials and Gen Z are redefining work so that the industrial revolution that started in the US stays in the US.

The Blue Collar BS podcast helps Blue Collar business owners like you build a business that will thrive for decades to come by turning that Blue Collar BS into some Blue Collar business solutions.

In this episode, you're going to learn that your first job is not your last job in the manufacturing, construction and trades, that servant leadership crosses all generations. Education and manufacturing can work together and authentic communication is key.

Our guest today is Jason Haynes, a younger Gen X who grew up in the founder world and shares his journey. We hope you enjoy the show. I'm excited about things. How are you doing today?

I am doing wonderful, mr Stephen Doyle. This hot June day, summer has arrived. Summer is alive and well here in Wisconsin right now and it's going to be like 60s and 70s next week who knew, over the fourth of July holiday.

Perfect, that's great weather. So it's a lot better than I would say where our guest is from, because it's a little hot over there.

It's cool for our guest in Arizona today, at only 90 degrees for the middle of June. We'd like to introduce our guest Jason. Is it Haynes or Haynes?

It is.

Haynes. So Jason and I we connected on LinkedIn. He's been a listener of the show. He has worked in the blue collar world his most pretty much his entire career mold guy, foundry guy, all sorts of really cool stuff and we are pleased to have here Jason to share your experiences and how you are seeing the multi-generational workforce in the blue collar world today.

So thank you for being here.

I thank you guys and I appreciate you having me on no problem Before we get started and before I forget, you know it's the, it's the millennial boomer in me, I mean Gen X. So before we get started, which generation do you best fit in with?

I am actually on the tail end of Gen X as far as my generation. I probably fit in pretty much with the Gen Xers and the boomers, with a lot of my beliefs and everything throughout the years. But I was looking at you guys list and everything and my wife and then explains a lot of things about her as she falls in the millennial generation. My wife's great, don't give me wrong, I just joke with her.

She doesn't listen, does she?

No, no, she doesn't listen, and she'll probably. If she did, she would probably laugh, to be honest with you Right, that's what they all say.

Until they listen, yeah yeah, exactly. So tell us a little bit about how you got started in you know blue collar world. How did you get started and saw that as a path to prosperity for yourself?

So how I really got started was just when I was growing up with. Working on my grandpa's farm started out Basically we was making hay, taking care of farm animals and all that kind of stuff, just understanding that path. And then he went to. He actually started a tree farm or a Christmas tree farm oh cool, and just being out there in the summer trimming trees with them and going from there and learning that whole trade. Now the whole time I'm out there, him and my dad are both telling me not to go into any manufacturing work.

One of those things I was trying to avoid any type of manufacturing work and got stuck plumbing the middle of manufacturing work when my dad actually got me a job at the foundry back home and that's where I grew my passion for manufacturing and learning different people in different ways of guiding those people through the processes. So that's really how I got my blue collar. Start is just being out there working in different jobs. Probably the one job that I wasn't the most equipped for was actually carpentry. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed like carrying lumber and stuff like that. It was just I can't put two twigs together.

So you weren't the pattern maker then in the foundry? Is that what you're trying to say?

No, I was not the pattern maker.

What was your favorite part about working in the foundry? What did you enjoy most?

The camaraderie, I mean just being around the people. I grew up also playing sports, so it was one of those things where the camaraderie when you're there, with sports and the teamwork and everything the foundry was a place that I found that, in as far as you just get to know, people start talking to them, learning to learn about them, learn about their journey really through life and where they came from, how they grew up, maybe what they did when they was younger, and just the camaraderie. I just enjoyed being around the guys and talking to them and and being there and helping them out.

Did they so? When you said, you said, hey, dad got me the job coming in there, Did they accept you differently because it was dad? Or did they treat you and just haze the hell out of you because of dad? How did that go down for you just to be accepted into the little smiling brother and so to speak?

Well, I have a funny story that I probably wouldn't be able to tell on here, but they accepted me.

Oh we're okay, we're okay, we're okay.

Absolutely so. The very first day that I came into the foundry that was working on what they called the drag cleaner, and they took me down there and they had me with cleaning the molds and everything. And one guy calls me over and if you met this guy, he was like the class clown in a sense. He brings me over to him and him and his buddy were working at what they called the core maker and the cope roll over. Yeah, he calls me over and he looks at me and I go yeah, what do you need? And he goes I'm the reason your daddy's leaving, your mommy. I'm looking at him like he's a mom.

So I was accepted, not by everybody, but for the most part I was pretty well accepted by a lot of people. A lot of people love my dad as far as because he was very personable, love being around him, and that's kind of where I started to build that sense of camaraderie and it was able to talk with more people and it was more comfortable Cause, trust me, you go into a foundry the first day. You walk in there it's scary, there's fires everywhere, it's hot, dirty. It's not the best work in the world. And then one of the jobs I had, which was basically a middle molding lead. You would give people breaks at one of the jobs that you might be down there an hour later, wait for that person to come back, cause it was one for everybody.

In the summertime was even worse.

No, I was in a Ford shop, closed-eye Ford shop, so I completely understand. A little bit different than a foundry or steel mill, but it's still freaking hot.

Yes, yes.

It's a little. So when you started in the foundry, clearly you were one of the younger ones, and how talk to us a little bit, if you can remember back then, of you just called me old.

You know, just in case you wanted to hear that, Steve just call it. Hey, Steve, we should not call our guests old like that.

Okay, don't do that.

Same age. It's okay, steve, to be honest with you, some days I feel old and then I realized I got a two year old and a five year old, so I'm like I don't feel as old as until they get older. And then I'll be like, yeah, son, I can't go out there and throw a ball with you.

Yeah, yeah. So jumping back into that me calling you old, back in the heyday, when you first started being the younger kid in the group, how did you feel received and did they provide any kind of mentoring, if you will?

I think so in the job that I personally had, there wasn't a mentoring. Usually everybody's against you. The other shifts grew and over the other shift it was a three shift process. So it's one of those things where the last shift left me bad and you really didn't and you was working hard and there were stuff that happened. Well, the guy that I just told you about, actually one day I was saying something to him and he just looked at me and goes Jason, just F what they think he's like, screw what they think and just do your job, and that's pretty much.

After that I pretty much gained a whole different attitude and I also gained respect from a lot of the guys because I started helping them out. Like I said, it gets hot in the foundry in the summertime. Instead of giving the guys a 15 minute break and a 20 minute lunch and a 15 minute break, I would give them longer breaks to let them get off the floor a bunch longer. I would go and get bottled water and ice and all that kind of stuff, cause that was part of my job and it was one of those things once I started helping them out and taking molds off and putting molds on and giving them longer breaks or if they had to use a raster, and giving them a break to get out of the hot.

It was one of those things. That that's where I gained my respect was I was able to show them that I was willing to work hard for them and they started helping me out and working hard for me, and that was at all levels. It didn't matter age or anything. I got to the point where I was on night shift and there was people actually coming to my shift to work with me because I was helping them out. That's cool.

That's very cool, yeah. So how has that shaped? How has that shaped your leadership or your ability to you know support, support today, in today's multi-generational workforce? How have you taken those characteristics or those learnings and experiences to apply them today and help your clients and customers understand that there are still a lot of really good people out there that want to work, it's just different. How have you put that together?

I think the hardest part when in the position I'm in today is getting them to understand it, because they don't always see it from what I'm doing and everything. But I think the easiest way is when I go and I support those places and show them like within my network, working in manufacturing, you don't really have a network except for the people you work with. I always tell people you're in a bubble and the only people in your network is really the people that you work with in that manufacturing facility where now I got a network where I can just say, hey, I understand you're having this problem, so I send them that contact, their direction, so it makes it easier for them to possibly find employees. Or here in Phoenix. Phoenix has actually grown in the last four years as far as manufacturing.

When I first moved down here 10 years ago it was like the Stone Ages. We had maintenance guys that didn't even really know how to turn a wrench and a lot of times it was just different as far as everything goes with the manufacturing realm. But now it's grown. But a lot of people still don't have the best network that are moving here manufacturing facilities and I've started growing that network to where, if they're looking for somebody that's possibly needs cleaning supplies or something within their facility, I can say, hey, I got this guy that you can actually give a call. That's here, local, instead of doing the U lines or the Granger's or stuff like that.

Or the guy that I was talking to you guys about earlier that does the automation and stuff. I've bounced a lot of ideas off of him with what I do as far as process improvements and and taking a look at jobs such as sorting through pictures eight hours a day that nobody wants to do and after about, at the end of the day, your eyes are so blurry you're worried about whether you can drive home and he was talking to me about Cobot, so I can bring them in, have him talk to the general manager or whoever's over that facility and have them take a look at it and and maybe take that redundant job and make it to where those people especially the newer generation there's people that don't want to do that job, and I can understand why they don't want to do that job and put them on a machine to where they can train and learn something that they feel like they're being more part of the team. That's cool.

No, that's, that's the repetitive task. Activity with without preceded value is hard to get a Gen Z kid to understand. There's value to that. It looks like it's like oh yeah, just do this over and over and over again. Well, this is what's the value to that. So being able to explain the value of and the importance of those pictures and the importance of being able to sort through those for eight hours is hard. I shouldn't say hard. It's complicated because most people don't understand the true value of it, because nobody's ever put a value on it, just what we've always done.

Exactly, and the company that I was in, that was actually where their bottleneck was. Literally it was out of position, and one of the guys that when I was going through it, he's like you can't tell me that job's not boring. I'm like it isn't really for me because I'm trying to figure out a better way that you can do it, but for you guys. I can understand where it's boring and people don't want to be here, but it's important. It was important because the fact that if the pictures weren't getting sorted, the next step in the process was pretty much screwed. I mean, you literally were drying up the rest of the process and it was, I think, step three in their process. So you're pretty much drying up your whole, whole, whole process and then at the end of the day everybody's running around trying to get everything done. It's like it's fun to watch it sometimes, but it's like you guys do realize you could have done something that would help this.

That's why you're there. That's why you're there, jason. Yeah, exactly. If they figured it out, they wouldn't need you. Well, no?

yeah, exactly I know, and that's the fresh eyes and everything as far as bringing somebody in with fresh eyes.

Right. So in the Phoenix area, from a manufacturing perspective with it, you know, manufacturing growing there, what have you seen from a generation perspective of, I would say, competence in the workforce and then also acceptance of younger generations in the workforce?

I think here in Phoenix, as far as the acceptance and the confidence, the confidence is a little bit behind, I want to say, because a lot of people aren't from areas that had manufacturing and before the 2008 recession, part of the reason they grew their manufacturing is because everybody basically had no jobs and there was nothing here, because everybody was a carpenter, which I probably would have never been able to work here because I can't be a carpenter, but that's besides the point.

But you can be a wood hauler.

But yeah, so that's when they started growing the economy in other areas through, like our ACA down here. But, as you was saying, the confidence right now is a little bit behind, like the lean management. A lot of people don't understand that. I talked to people today and talked to them and they have never even heard of it. They're like, oh, that's a great idea, but they've never heard of it.

How do you not hear about that?

It's a lot because there's not a lot of manufacturing. There wasn't a lot of manufacturing. It was all building houses, building warehouses and stuff like that, and not really Financial technology it's all here.

And then as far as the younger generation working, that I really here in Phoenix I can't really tell you what it's like. I know we've gotten better as far as we've built trade schools and that's coming into place. We actually in Pima County have a college or a trade school that's just manufacturing. But that's what happened in the last four or five years. So it's one of those things where the younger generation, as I was saying, a lot of us construction before. So it's still kind of behind, but not fully behind.

Okay. So, as you have that scenario, where you're at today, how are the employers attracting or bringing that young talent in that might not have that experience, may not have ever seen a farm, may not have even hooked a trailer to anything or changed our oil at some point of their life? How are you seeing those manufacturing facilities attract, retain, teach and educate the younger generations? What are they doing in your part of the country to be successful?

As I was saying before with the trade schools. That's one of the big things. I know there's been a big push as far as what they call MCOR or the Maricopa County Community College has pushed that. As far as what I've seen for myself personally, it's been more of bringing me in to train them as far as from the ground up, instead of just going in and trying to force that square peg into a round hole where a lot of the management's kind of got a general knowledge of lean and the front lines really has no knowledge and you're trying to train people. So really it's just getting people to understand that there's processes out there, there's actually better jobs than what they think, and also showing people that, rather than going straight to college and paying for college, you can work through your manufacturer, through tuition, reimbursement programs and different items such as that, in order to advance your career and grow better.

Okay. And how are you able, as you go through, and help them understand the lean manufacturing, and that change is always happening and change isn't always bad, it's a good thing. How are you, how have you had to adapt your communication styles and or techniques to support that 25 year old kid or that 19 year old kid that's coming in? What have you had to do to adapt and change to be effective?

I think the one thing that I haven't had to change much as far as talking because I'm a hillbilly, I won't lie. A lot of people that come into blue color jobs or it doesn't matter what part of the country you're from, a lot of people in the country where you're from, you may be even from the inner city, most of them are have the language such as mine, as far as it's not the the most fluent and it's not the most always the smartest, it's not the most intelligent, but it gets the point across and it's easy to start talking to people and relate to them. I think the one thing that I usually do, especially with the younger generation, especially because, like I said, when I grew up I was told not to go into manufacturing. I thought I had to get a college degree, had to go to college, thought I failed my parents actually because I didn't get a degree and ended up in manufacturing. And then, once I got there, realized that there was something that would help me get my degree yet took me. I probably could have had a doctorate by now because of the years that took me, but I was able to go in there and found out that they they helped me pay for my college.

Took me a little bit longer but I got a degree and it doesn't mean that you're stuck in that position. You have that opportunity to be able to advance. You can become an engineer, you become. My degree was in business administration and marketing. Now I use that with the business and everything as far as getting out there and helping people understand stuff about manufacturing. It's just I've been able to relate to people regardless of the age and everything, because I guess I do more of a straight talk and more of a layman's terms. I know a guy that I listen to always says I have two languages. He said one's English and one's hillbilly. So I just I relate to people and it doesn't matter what level they're on. Sometimes I understand I'm probably talking beneath them, but I still can kind of get the gist of what they're talking about.

Right. So what recommendations do you have for companies today that are kind of struggling with finding the right talent?

I would say if they're struggling to find the right talent, I think they. One thing and this is the one thing that I guess is pet peeve of mine is within manufacturing is the fact that we've always been stuck in the the hole. It's got to be eight hours.

It's all you got to be 12 hours.

Oh, I want to reach out and just give you a big old kiss and hug my friend. Oh, my God, wow, we agree.

Holy, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's and don't get me wrong, I understand the guys that like doing that, but at the same time I had friends that I was making money when I was at the foundry and they love the money that I was making, but they didn't have the opportunity outside. They had a kid, they couldn't, and they wasn't married or anything like that. So they had to have have certain weekends offer, they had to have certain things, and those guys would have been great in the, in the, in the manufacturing facility, but they couldn't work there because you had to be there a certain amount of time had to be show up at 4 30 in the morning.

Yeah.

Yeah, why.

Exactly and the we need to get more flexible with the scheduling and more.

As a matter of fact, I was actually just talking to a guy this morning that said his wife worked at Motorola on their flex scheduling.

He said they did away with it which I didn't have enough time before the podcast research because it just hurt this morning but he said that she worked there and they was also with the flex scheduling, giving like basically extra income and they had the opportunity to pay for your schooling, to go learn something and learn a trade or something like that, to, to, to become better, and the reason she took the job was because they had kids and he had a full time job and and she had to pay for them with the kids.

But they needed that little bit of extra income, which makes sense. I'm like why don't other organizations do that? As a matter of fact, an organization I worked with a couple years ago was doing flex scheduling during Christmas time because they couldn't keep employees long enough because of the different needs outside. So they they allowed, say, an employee to come in instead of, like you said, brad, instead of at 430 in the morning, they could come in at 10 and work their eight hours or their six hours to where they. They met the needs of what their customers wanted, but still fill in the jobs.

Yeah. So then what recommendations would you give to the younger group looking to get into manufacturing?

Recommendations I would give the younger group Take a look at it first to make sure it is a good fit, because, just like anything, it's going to be a commitment. As far as that goes, if you really want to want to grow somewhere and you got to understand like sometimes your circumstances aren't always going to fit into that area. As far as what was in the past, everybody said it was dirty, always grimy, dirty jobs. It's not always dirty jobs. Trust me, there's a lot of jobs you go into that are cleaner than going into a restaurant. I mean, I did work at McDonald's a long time ago and a lot of people don't understand. Behind the counter, mcdonald's is nothing but a freaking ice freak. When you go home, you just feel like you got ten pounds of grease on you. And there was times at other jobs that I've been at not foundry but other jobs I've been at that I walked home and really didn't have to take a shower when I got home. That's awesome.

So, jason, as people listen to our show, our tens and tens and tens of listeners that we have out here, you know, because we are worldwide right that they want to reach out, have a conversation, understand some of those things you've talked about about you know, a kid wants to understand how to get into a trade, or might be in the Phoenix area that says, hey, you know what. I need to talk to this guy. How do people find you? Where they find you? How do we get a hold of you? What's going on there?

Biggest thing. You reach out to me on LinkedIn or you get an email me. I'm not. I'm not good at answering the phone a lot of times because I get a lot of spam calls for whatever freaking reason, so I don't answer it. If you leave a message, I usually call back usually call back.

Whoa whoa, whoa whoa. If you leave a message, usually call back. That's like a business practice, jason.

If it's my family, I don't call back.

Okay fair enough, alright fair.

I understand this fully.

You got it and I was thinking about this, so I use terms and I was where I came from. Usually I always call back where I came from. Yeah, we always call back, but I got a change. My wife's bad about correct me on a lot of things because of where she works at, so usually means I always call back. It's just where I came from Sometimes.

When you use the word sometimes it's questionable. Usually is always, sometimes is maybe.

Sometimes questionable. I was thinking about that as far as when you go in like on social media and stuff, a lot of times people post something on social media and where I came from, one thing means one thing and another part of the air good, the country, something, the same thing means something totally different, and that's where I think a lot of people get into fights about stuff and you're like, well, that's what I kind of met, alright so are you a soda or pop? I am pop. My wife is soda.

Oh and we're both from Ohio, so I'm from the southeast side of Ohio and she's from the Cincinnati or southwest side of Ohio.

Okay, interesting, interesting.

See where I come from. If you like, I said you can hear the accent, that O is elongated and I think that's why we said pop, because it was quick, where soda would be like soda.

Yeah, that is spectacular.

Jason, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and wisdom with us today and with our listeners. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to get to know you better, looking forward to seeing more of you on LinkedIn and connecting, and please, by all means, let us know what's going on. You know, as you go through your automation journey and different things with with your clients, keep us posted as to what's happening. Alright, alright, we'll do. Alright. Thank you, guys so much. Thank you for listening to Blue Collar BS brought to you by Vision Forward Business Solutions and Professional Business Coaching Inc. If you'd like to learn more on today's topic, just reach out to Steve Doyle or myself, Brad Herda. Please like, share, rate and review this show, as feedback is the only way we can get better. Let's keep Blue Collar Businesses strong for generations to come.