One letter a week, from a guy who still has a day job

What it is

One letter, Saturday morning at 7 a.m. Eastern. One real story from a real floor, what it cost, and what to do with it on Monday. It's free, and you can leave anytime.

It is plain text, the way a person types a note. No header image, no buttons, no design to get past. The whole letter is in the email, so you never have to click out to read it.

Each issue runs about 700 words. That is roughly three minutes, which is about one scroll on a phone while the coffee is still hot.

Every issue is about one thing. Something that happened, what it cost, and what that might be worth to somebody whose week is already full. I still work in manufacturing and operations, so a lot of it starts on a plant floor.

I was nineteen and a brand new shift supervisor. A man named Anton kept showing up late, and it was costing the guys on days. So I said my piece out on the shop floor, at the film bench, and I sent him home. Barbara Barton, one of the owners, sent him back to work and walked me through my own conversation, step by step. I wasn't wrong about the lateness. I was wrong about where I did it. Today that talk happens in a room with a door on it.

It's not a list of ten tips. It's not a pep talk. It's not somebody's book summarized. And nobody in it got rich. I won't tell you this made me money, and I won't tell you it'll make you any.

If writing an issue doesn't cost me something, I don't send it.

That is the whole thing. If you want to know about the room behind the letter, read what The Second Shift is. The letter comes first either way.