In praise of the float

Five kitchens, five ways of doing things

Every house runs a little differently, and most of it never gets written down. Which drawer the scissors live in. Which door has to be pulled hard before it'll lock. Whether the log gets filled in after every meal or all at once before the end of the shift. What a check mark on the whiteboard means, as opposed to a circle.

A float learns all of it, usually by asking once and remembering for good. That's a real skill, and it rarely shows up in anyone's job description.

The bigger skill is the people. A good float remembers who likes the radio on at breakfast and who'd rather it was quiet. Who wants the blue mug. Who likes to hear the plan for the day before anything else happens. Carrying that across five houses takes real attention, and it's why a familiar face walks in on the day the regular staff is out.

What makes a house easy to walk into

Ask a float which houses are easy to cover and they'll tell you right away. The difference is mostly small stuff.

• A one-page “how this house works” sheet, somewhere a float will actually find it. Where the log is, who to call, what happens at what time, and the one thing that trips everyone up the first time.
• Someone who says hello and walks them through the first ten minutes. A quick lap of the house saves a lot of opening the wrong cabinet.
• Their name on the board with everyone else's. It's a small thing. It says they're part of the shift, not a visitor to it.
• A thank-you on the way out. Floats hear “oh, who's on today?” a lot. They should hear “thanks for coming” just as often.

The one thing a float can't do

Be in two houses at once. Everyone agrees on that, and it still happens on paper, because each house's schedule looks fine on its own. Westmoor has her on Thursday at three. Ridgeway has her on Thursday at three. Both houses are covered right up until Thursday at 2:55.

In Delegyn Shift, that check looks across every home in the agency at once. Try to put someone on at Ridgeway while they're already on at Westmoor, and the schedule stops and tells you where she already is: already scheduled at Westmoor at that time. It looks at the day before and the day after as well, so an overnight that started the evening before counts too.

Say thanks, and then ask them something

Floats see the agency from more angles than almost anyone. They know which house has the smoothest handoff, which one has the fridge list the others should copy, and which one still hasn't gotten the dryer fixed.

So ask. “What does one of our houses do that the rest of us should steal?” is a good question for the next staff meeting, and the float will have an answer ready.

Then buy them a coffee. They've learned five different ways to make it.

Try it on this week See what it costs

Fourteen days, your real schedule, no card. $20 a month plus $1 per staff member.