6 minute read
Life Lessons
LIFE LESSONS TANA GREENE
She fled an abusive marriage at 17 and went on to launch two multimillion-dollar staffing companies. Amid the coronavirus, Tana Greene is still putting people back to work
BY TAYLOR BOWLER
BY 18, TANA GREENE was a divorced single mother of a 2-year-old son. An abusive marriage had le her shaken— but not sidelined. She nished school, bought a house, and by 29—with her second husband, Mike—had cofounded Greene Group, a national sta ing company that grew to operate in more than 20 states. She took on one of the most heavily regulated, male-dominated industries in the country, trucking, and proved her innate talent for hiring and managing sta .
In 2017 she launched MyWorkChoice, an app that connects job seekers with business owners. The program recruits, screens, and trains workers for hourly positions in the industrial, warehouse, and call center industries; posts companies’ schedules; and allows workers to select four-, six-, or eight-hour shi s to accommodate their needs. In three years, it’s expanded to nine states with customers that include Shutter y, Nordstrom, DeWalt, and Saddle Creek Logistics.
We sat down with Greene, now 61, to discuss domestic violence, exible sta ing, and how she’s responded to COVID19. Her words have been edited for space and clarity.
I WAS BORN AND RAISED in Chesapeake, Virginia. I was an honor roll student, chaplain of my school back when you could have that as an elected position, and president of the principal’s committee. When I started ninth grade, everything was wonderful. But what does every girl want when they start high school? A boyfriend. I got lucky, and Mr. Popular, a senior, picked me. In the summer between ninth and 10th grade, I got pregnant. What do you do in the South in 1974? You walk down the aisle in a white dress as quickly as possible.
IT WASN’T LONG before I realized I was in a domestic violence relationship. He slowly isolated me from friends and family. I really hit a wall one night when we were supposed to go on a date. I spent all day getting ready; my parents were going to babysit. My husband was late, and when he came home, I knew he’d been drinking. I started crying, and he said to get in the car. When we got to my parents’ house, he took the baby carrier out with our 8-month-old, set it on the ground, beat me, and drove o . So I had to go to the door. My dad took one look at me, grabbed his keys, and went looking for him—thank God he didn’t nd him.
MY MOM was smart enough to connect me with a counselor. He said I had a choice to make: I could be a victim or a survivor. He sent me home to write my goals on paper. I knew I wanted to nish school, own my own house by 25, and my own business by 30. And I wanted to marry a knight in shining armor somewhere in there, too (laughs). I completed each one of those goals by the dates I’d set. I married Mike in 1985, and we opened the doors to our rst sta ng company, Greene Group, on May 9, 1988.
IN 2001, we were mainly in manufacturing, and when 9/11 hit, the rst thing the industry did was lay o . We lost half our business overnight. We had to sell our home—we didn’t know how we’d make payroll. But we made it work because we had a lot of people depending on us. The crash of ’08 wasn’t much better. But you fail three times before you make it. WHEN MIKE AND I went into business together, I assumed the support role, and we went along that path for a long time. A lot of it was my upbringing, whether it was the South, the church—the message that the male is the leader of the house. A er 9/11, my husband and a consultant of ours called me in for co ee and said, “We need you to lead this organization.” I said, “No, it would ruin my marriage.” My husband was sitting there saying he wanted me to lead, but it took me a long time to embrace that and become the voice of a leader. I was always told I was too bossy and I needed to be quiet because I was a Southern girl and you weren’t supposed to do that. I realized I had a real passion for this, helping
people get jobs. I had to lead this. It’s crazy how you get these messages in your head. We stand in our own way.
I DON’T THINK I WAS AUTHENTIC to myself for many years. We want people to believe this character we create because they’ll accept us more. We’re afraid to be ourselves, to be a woman. I didn’t go to college; I went to business school. I didn’t get a four-year degree. I got married at 15 and quit school, then went back. These are all things I kept very quiet from the public. My world changed the day I came out and talked about domestic violence. It changed my leadership style.
IN 2007, a close friend’s daughter who knew my story asked if I would come speak to her high school class. I knew nothing about domestic violence except what I went through. So I called a hotline, and they connected me with a woman who said she’d go with me and help eld questions. The woman who came was Karen Parker, CEO of Safe Alliance. Later, she asked if I would be on the board of directors. We raised $10 million to open the center, and I became a spokesperson. At rst, I couldn’t get through telling my story without crying my eyes out. That was the point at which I said, “It’s time for me to speak out for others.”
MY STAFFING is all in the hourly sector, mostly blue-collar, and my biggest “aha!” moment was when I realized the way we sta and the way we treat people was broken. The sta ng industry was experiencing 433 percent turnover a year and 31 percent absenteeism every day. It made no sense to force a way of work that was created 120 years ago, when there were only men in the workforce. People want exibility in their life. If they work contingent, they can’t commit to a 40-hour workweek, not with the way life happens. We launched
MyWorkChoice three years ago, and it resonates, especially now with
COVID-19. How do you get people to show up when they have kids at home? Allowing a worker to schedule when they can work is the answer to productivity.
THIS COVID-19 PANDEMIC is a challenge, but I’ve faced challenges in the past and I know it’s very di erent this time. I can see that it’s temporary. Everybody will be even stronger on the other side. My model has never been more at the right place and the right time to help people. You’ve got all these displaced people, but you also have a huge demand for supplies. Companies like Amazon, Kroger, and Walmart are all stepping up their hiring e orts. Our technology eliminates the need for inperson interactions to recruit, train, and put into place the workers they need. We’re not declining right now; we’re growing. I’m able to take a lot of people that aren’t working and put them to work. I’m almost over-the-top excited— not for what’s happening, but for what I can do for these displaced people. We’re helping bridge that gap. A er 32 years, I am making the biggest impact right now.
