Stephen C Gerwin

     In the spring in the mid 1970’s Stephen C. Gerwin found himself a newly minted supervisor, no direction, no advice, just sink of swim, and learn it on the fly. A bunch of very young teenagers reporting to an older teenager, no problem! He worked part time at The Behnke Nursery Company in Beltsville Maryland a horticultural nursery weekends while in high school. Now in college it was assumed he could handle a half dozen younger workers, after all five or so years ago he had been the same very young, impressionable, know it all teenager himself, just like the very folks he was to supervise.

     He had some supervisory experience at Paint Branch High School in Silver Spring Maryland as he had stage managed a number of major drama productions. One distinct memory was of the drama teacher stating on opening night in the green room to the actors and crew that once the house lights went down the stage manager, he, was “god” during the production, in complete control of actors, lighting, and sounds crews, grips, the whole of the production, wow!

     At the nursery his crew had worked with him on an assemble line during the winter, his bosses left him alone, they just expected the assemble line to produce a set quantity of pots filled of soil ready for planting during the week. Experimentation was how he learned his new responsibility as a supervisor. One of his more challenging members of the crew finally came around when he, as the new supervisor agreed to listen to Bob Dylan while the assembly line rolled. This author was not Bob Dylan fan at the time, but the music seemed to inspire this one troublesome teenager to work with the team. We all became a Bob Dylan fans in time! The young man was heard, valued, and with the music he helped the team succeed. They had some real fun and met the quantity and quality easily each week. 

     As the winter turned to spring his crew was now on many different tasks spread all over the nursery. The kids were watering, moving plants to the sales area, cashiering, loading cars. How could he be everywhere helping his crew to stay on task? After all, a good supervisor is everywhere at all times because, well he was the supervisor and workers need constant guidance.

     One day it hit him like a bolt out of the blue, he did not need to be every where at all times, in fact trying to micro manage his crew gave him heart burn and probably did the same for his crew. What a revelation, delegation, a day this author thinks about even 40 years later.

     Upon graduation from college in 1979 with a BS in Engineering from the University of Maryland he was hired by a water utility and again found himself a line supervisor, managing a 24/7 operation that oversaw and operated a rather substantial water distribution system. His staff was predominately older gentleman that new far more than this new young engineer. One gentleman was over 70 years old, managed by this 23 year old kid. Needless to say, the staff took good care of this new supervisor and after some years and more than a few supervisory mistakes by him the team did good work together. Again, there were very few classes in supervision for many years and the courses offered we very limited.

     As his career moved forward the number and type of folks supervised expanded. In the 1990’s he became a manager overseeing an operation with about 45 people. In 2003 He held an acting position overseeing a team of over 250 employees for almost a year. Along the way a Master of Public Police was picked up. He has also held the position of president of a public elementary school PTA as well as various board positions in professional organizations. Always learning about how to successfully supervise direct reports, be they volunteers or staff.

     At the time this book is being finalized he has retired from his first job after 28+ years and assumed the director’s position for a different utility, working there for ten years and retired for good in Florida in 2017.

     It was time to collect all of those years of notes on lessons learned both good and bad regarding line supervision and publish them in a book, and this book, A Field Guide For New Supervisors was born.