The shop bulletin board is an interesting method of communicating information because nobody knows who posted the information. This method works well because it spreads the information to everyone in the organization, from the custodian and maintenance technicians to team leads and supervisors. Everyone was now asking the manager what he thought.
As our human resources department morphed — you notice I didn't say progressed — they realized for many reasons that they had to control the bulletin boards, so they covered them in locked glass displays. We had to move on to plan B.
In those days before e-mail, we had interoffice mailing systems that moved documents from person to person within four-six hours or at least every 24 hours. So we would make copies of these articles and send them to everyone who had an in box. That system worked pretty well, except that your name and address were on the preceding line, so everyone knew who it came from.
This is not a good thing when you are spreading information that is critical of the current program and practices. To solve that, we would walk around to different departments and remove their empty envelopes and use them to spread the word. No one knew the controversial materials came from you.
Managers Must Spread Message of Needed Maintenance Products
Shop Bulletin Board Interesting Place to Plant Seeds of Support
