Advice for employers

I once worked for a newspaper editor who, every year without fail, wrote a column denouncing that he hadn’t been asked to give the local high school graduation commencement speech, but if he had, this is what he’d have said. He’d then go on to share his advice, humorous but genuine, to that year’s graduating class. I always appreciated how his guidance wasn’t directed only to those students who were headed off to college. He also addressed those entering the workforce straight from high school. It has been decades since I’ve read any of my former editor’s columns, but I thought of them when I first read Marshall Atkinson’s article, “Why would anyone want to work for you?” on page 42. It struck me that Marshall’s advice is the reverse of something my old editor would have written — sage advice, but addressed to the employer, not future employee.

With or without college experience, I believe, as Marshall shares in the opening paragraphs of his article, that people want to work. It’s puzzling the number of times we hear phrases such as “People don’t want to work anymore” when, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more people employed now than there were in early 2020 before the pandemic, before AI shifted work as we know it, and before “influencer” became a job title. I agree with Marshall that there are often two words missing in the “People don’t want to work” statement — “People don’t want to work FOR ME anymore.”

I say this by no means to minimize the struggles small businesses face in our challenging and changing economy. Still, as I read Marshall’s article, I wondered what a commencement speech column from my old newspaper boss would have read like if it weren’t addressed to the students leaving high school, but to the employers welcoming them to work. Marshall does that in this month’s issue, and it’s a must-read for anyone struggling to recruit, hire, and retain great team members.

Speaking of high school — that crazy, complicated period in a family’s life that goes by way too fast — it’s the second week of June as I write this, and I can hear neighbor kids yelling from across the street, an obvious sign that school is out for summer. Since our own children finished high school years ago, I’ve lost my point of reference for whether school is in session. I mention this because of Shane Wilson. As you’ll read on page 12, Shane, at his shop, Scottsbluff Screenprinting in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, is already working on fall sports gear, as I suspect many of our apparel decorator readers are. In Shane’s line of work, a sure reminder of his fall workload is that kids are let out of school for the summer.

Similarly, when this note is finished and the July issue set to press, our team here at GRAPHICS PRO will gather virtually to prep for our fall issues. We’re not only looking ahead to the rest of this year, but also setting sights beyond that as we’re in the process of building out our 2027 editorial calendar. That’s where readers like you come in. If there is a topic, trade, or technique you think we should share in the coming year, we’d love to hear about it. Feel free to send me an email at janderson@cahabamedia.com.

James Anderson

Editor-in-chief