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Bruno Arsenault owns a fishery in New Brunswick. The company has four people in the office, two salespersons, and two managers. They have around 120 employees in the factory and 15 more working on trucks or boats. Bruno and his brother determine the company's goals, which include expanding their shipping to the west coast. The employees agree with these goals as it benefits them. The workers have specific roles based on their skills and experience. The company faced management problems during the COVID pandemic, leading them to hire immigrants from Mexico. The employees generally enjoy their work, although some seasons are more challenging. The employees value the sea and fishing. The company prioritizes the environment and monitors their impact. They invest in lobster preservation and take care of any issues with the water. The division of power is not strict, and anyone can approach Bruno or his brother with concerns. Bruno visits the factory multiple times a day and interacts with t Hi, today I'm here with Bruno Arsenault from Bathurst, New Brunswick, who owns a fishery in the French part of New Brunswick called Poisson Réal-Senault. He is a co-owner with his brother, and it's a fourth-generation business. He is CEO and manager of the business also. So if you want to introduce yourself. Hi, I'm Bruno Arsenault, 48 years old. I've been going on about 28 years working for the factory. So your grandfather owned it? Yeah. Is that how it started? Yeah, it works. Okay, so could you just tell me about how your company is organized? So what are the stages? Like you have your people on the boat, people on the... In terms of the factory, we have four people working in the office, just doing accounting, financial stuff. We have two salespersons that are doing a great job right now. We also have two managers that just manage the factory and how many people get in a month, like how many workers we need each month depending on the season. And that's pretty much it. We have around 120 employees in the factory, and I'd say about maybe 15 more just working on trucks or on the boats or different sort of things. Okay, cool. So what are the stated goals of the organization? Like who determines them? Well, that would be me and my brother. My brother, of course, we have a lot of help from the offices, so some good ideas. So and I would say our goals for the next few years is definitely maybe not to keep expanding the factory, I think we're big enough as it is, but definitely expand where we're shipping. We're shipping now in mostly Japan, Dubai, and the east coast of the state, so Boston and just Massachusetts area, a little bit of Maine, and we would like to go like expand to the west coast more, so Oregon, Seattle, Lake, California, all that stuff, for Estoran hopefully in the next two years, that's our project. So do your employees and everyone that works for you agree with your goals? Do they align with what the company goals are? Yeah, I believe so, because everybody wants the company to grow in that way, since the more we grow, like we make sure everybody gets a piece of the pie, so it's better for everyone. The factory workers, it's even beneficial for them since they'll get paid more if we can find ways to just improve our income, and yeah. Okay, and do your workers have specific roles, or is it kind of you hire them and then you structure what they're doing? No, we, well for, it depends where they work in the factory, in the offices of course they need some sort of education, and more importantly a background, or like, especially a manager, like the one who managed the factory worker, like all of them have had a lot of experience with management in the past, so they're doing a really good job as of now, and same with the accounting and the financial people, of course we hire them specifically. Okay, yeah. Has there been any management problems recently, like in a political sense, or in a cultural sense? Yeah, actually not too long ago, when COVID hit, like three years ago, we had some problem with just not having enough employees, we might have like 20 employees working in the factory, when we actually needed like 80 of them, so we actually went to an agency that we, we picked immigrants from Mexico, they come, we give them housing, the whole thing, they get, they get, they're really treated really well, they have like activities, all that stuff, and they've been doing a really good job, and we've been getting more and more each year as we're growing, just because it just works so well, and a lot of people in the industries actually are opting for that solution, since it's hard to get employees now, especially in Canada, and so at the first, like the start, we had 20, which wasn't bad, the second year, it's 40, third year, we had 60 of them, which started to kind of, we definitely had some issue management stuff, because of the language barrier, and also just having so many people to take care of, we had to actually hire two more people, just someone to manage, just who gets what shift, and just some, some stupid, like, how can you say that, just, you can say that in French, I can translate it, all right, chicane? Oh, yeah, a little serious. So, yeah, and just also someone who's a translator, so we could, like, tell them, like, what to do specifically, but it's been good, like, we definitely adapted, and adapted, and now it's been going amazing, but definitely a year, a good year of transaction was, took a lot of work, hiring, investment, bought more houses for them, but it's going well, they love it, if they're happy, we're happy, and it's going well. Yeah, for sure. So, next question, how do people look and act when they arrive, when people get to work, do they look excited to work, happy to work, and how do they act when they leave also? I would say it depends. I like to believe that our whole crew has a nice work environment, I think we're doing a pretty good job with that, but for sure, and during, there's some seasons, say, May, June, even July, even April, May, June, July, these are four months, they're extremely busy, some higher up employees do have some crazy hours, I also have some crazy hours, as well as my brother, but they are paid accordingly, and we make sure the salary matches the amount of work, and the quality of work they put in, so for sure, some frustrating week, or the lobster seasons, when the shipment doesn't work, or, especially a lot of stress for me, and the managers, when things doesn't work, so definitely some weeks are harder than others, but at the end of the week, you know, have like a nice laugh, go eat some supper with the managers, and I feel like the using workers also, they like their bonuses, they like that they get a lot of other things that's really useful for them over the course of the lobster season, so there's definitely some harder days, where I think, at the end of the day, everybody's happy. Okay, cool, yeah, and do all your employees kind of like sea life, and fishing, and boating, like they all have the same value for the sea? I, yeah, I think most people do, especially because, like a lot of people that work for us just grew up on the sea, or next to the water, and it's kind of in our culture, except for the manager, and our accountings, and they all like that stuff, and for the immigrants, it's just a new, it's Canada's whole new thing, the East Coast, so they're loving it, going to the beach out here, it's a little different than Mexico, I believe, but still, I think everybody's liking it, and just the other people from batters that work there, they all like lobster, they love their discounts, so I think everybody's having a good time. Okay, cool, yeah, how important for your organization is the environment, and who monitors, and if so, who monitors, like, if you're doing well for the environment or not? It is extremely important to us, because, well, we rely on natural resources, so we do have some of the managers, especially from the factory, make sure everything's done accordingly, if it happens that we have any kind of issue with the water, it's getting taken care of immediately, and more so, it's more so our investment towards one of the, like, well, multiple organizations is for lobster preservation, or crab preservation, like, we had biologists going on our boats before, just taking samples, some stuff, making sure the lobster ecosystem is going well, we've bought some bricks, like 10,000 tons of bricks, and put them in the ocean near where all the lobster fishermen's fish is, and it's also good, just because they like the, like, more rockies, the bottom of the sea, better it is for the lobster, so, and we wanted all of the fishermen from our region to succeed, too, it's good for the economy, it's good, it's good for us, good for them, everybody's happy, and for sure, a big part of it, especially in the natural, natural resources businesses, people are all a little scared sometimes, we're just, climate change, storms, but, yeah, the only thing we can do is do our best, and make sure it's really important on our agenda, to make sure everything goes the best it could, best it could possibly go. Okay, yeah, awesome, that's good to hear. So, just a quick question, like, how, the division of power, how strict is it, kind of, like, can anyone just knock on the main office and talk to you, or is there a lot of levels to get up there? To be honest, no, we like to, anyone can come knock, it doesn't mean we're gonna address them immediately, we're gonna, we, even though we have so many employees, we make sure to all know their names, or somebody in the management, in the office knows, if we're super busy, and it's a matter, it takes a little more time, we'll just tell them to come by during the day, and it'll be fine, but usually, like, if there's complaint, or concern, it goes pretty quick, we just have a five-minute chat with them, give them the documents they need, if they need to, but yeah, you don't need to go through management, on their lunch break, or on their, their break, they'll just swing by, or whatever, like, we're pretty open, and me and my We're pretty open, and me and my brother, too, we'll, we'll, we try to keep, like, stay away, but from, like, like, altercation, but still, like, our door is never locked, they just knock on it, they know our offices, and we'll have a conversation with whoever. So, are you and your brother considered just the, you guys are recognized as people of power for everyone? Yeah. And, how often do you go down on, to see the factory workers, or go down on the, like, where the fishermen are on the boats, and stuff? I would say, at least, for me, the factory, probably five times a day, to see the shipments, everything's going well, I just like to say hi to the people that have been working for us for longer than I was, some people I've worked there since my great grandfather, or, yeah, my grandfather, sorry. So, it's always nice to say hi, and I say my brother Martin's probably at the wharf every single day, I probably go once every two days, so, yeah, we're definitely involved, definitely involved everywhere. Okay, yeah, good, good. And, what issues produce conflicts in your organization? Like, is there certain topics that start arguments or issues within the workers, or? Definitely with the fishermen, sometimes, just about the pricing, or, some of them, like, not the wages, it's just the prices of the lobster, because, you know, we don't decide the prices, what we pay for, what we sell it for, it's all about, really, the economy, how it goes, how much lobster this restaurant goes, if people have less money, you know, kind of, like, economies, they're not going to go to the restaurant and buy a hundred dollar plate worth of lobster, so, lately, we've, the price definitely been a little up, since we're selling less, it's basic economics, so, yeah, so, this is probably the most, the number one, like, altercation we see, it's about the prices of anything, lobster, and, like, a lot of people, clients, just, gets really mad, sometimes, and, it's frustrating for everyone, for prices, it's hard to, it's hard to control, but, yeah, for sure, we do our best to reduce our costs, and try to do better deal, as, as well, trying to make money, so, yeah, that's, that's probably number one. Okay, and, what seems to motivate your employees? Is it different throughout the levels and the roles of the work, or is, is there one thing motivating your employees, do you know? I think, just by seeing, there's a lot of people that started in the factory, and they've made their way up, and got really good salary offered to them, and their job position, it's just really how motivated they are, so, I think, seeing other people motivated, and just climbing the ladders, definitely, motivating other people to do well, get in early, get the job done, and be nice, it's a big thing, just have, like, just being nice to other people, just having good, nice smile on your face, and just, not, not just being, well, I don't know how to say that, like, just, you can't, like, come to work every day, like, mad, like, this shit, it's not a good environment for anyone, so, yeah, just seeing people work really hard, your co-workers work really hard, and make, make a lot of money, bonuses, you know, I feel like it definitely motivates people to come in and do their best. Okay, yeah, and, uh, is the company, uh, unionized? Are you guys under a union, or no? No. No, no union, okay. Do you have a system, or a kind of way to resolve conflict in the organization in a more subtle way? Yeah, we have two different boxes where people punch in in the morning, there's one just for suggestion, and you can sign your name, and, and there's another one just for conflicts, maybe you're seeing something at work that you know isn't right, you don't really want the wrath on your co-worker, so you just want to put it on a sheet of paper, put it in the little box, there's a lock on it, nobody can know who it is, we just, we open the box at the end of the day, manager takes, takes a read at them, I usually don't really read them, or pay attention to them, because, um, our, our managers usually take care of it, it's usually, people do use it a lot, but it's usually really small things that can be quick change, or a quick conversation, and usually it's, it has been really a good thing for us in the past year, we just recently started doing it, and it has been really good for all of us. All right, awesome. Um, in your organization, is there sometimes like, uh, subcultures that happens, kind of like cliques that happen with certain people, because of a common, uh, interest or value, or? Yeah, uh, definitely, definitely, in terms of where they work, because basically, you could say the, the whole business is divided in four, so we got the usine, the factory, we got the offices, with all the accountings, us, the owners, managers, then we have the little market, we have a front fish shop, they have, they have their own manager, the workers, there's some hired up people in this little fish shop, they could, they have like a certificate, and so that's another thing to say, so the usine also is divided in two, divided for cook product, and life product, just for sanitary purposes, and they have their own lunchroom, so it doesn't mix, so it's for sanitary purposes, we have to do its regulation, so definitely the people who work in the factory, the, the life factory part, they definitely stick together, eat lunch, uh, some of them, sorry, as we were saying, uh, yeah, some of them just also just drive to work together, or whatever's saying with the cook side, you know, they eat lunch together, all that stuff, they, they're usually friendship made, because you have to make friends at work, especially in the harder times, the busier times of the year, you know, there's definitely weeks, they work an insane amount of hours, which they're, you know, it's fine, but same with the, the market, the little market we have, they, they're all, every summer we have a student that works there, they're made really good friends, the manager, you know, they, they still go out to eat together, all that stuff, that's really good, very important, and same thing with the, sorry, the, with the offices, uh, they mostly eat lunch together, except like, and sometimes afterwards, we'll stay for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, debrief, and just talk about nothing and everything, you know, just not necessarily work, maybe add a glass of wine, I don't know, I just think it's important to spend some time with your co-workers. You were, you were saying there's a, there's a, you guys hire a lot of people from Mexico, yeah, to work for you guys, is there a kind of a division with the locals and the Mexican people working for you, or do they kind of, at first, definitely, surprisingly, I'd say even on the weekends when they have off, the local people will go over to their house, have supper, because they're really, really nice people, their cultures are really interesting, they make really good food, they're super friendly, they, they like to party, they're, they're really funny, but yeah, for sure, at the start, and it was kind of like separation, for sure, but now they're all mixed up, for sure, so it sounds like your organization, everyone's kind of very friendly and cordial together, yeah, which is, we try to, there is, there has been some situation this year, actually, because first, for the housing system, housing situation, the Mexican people that live in the house, they have some altercation, and, and it's just, we have to change, change some houses, and it all works out, but yeah, definitely have some, that's good, and how many houses do you own for them? I have three for now, three houses, yeah, looking for a fourth one, if not, do they live, like, on the, where the factory is? No, they live, let's say, all of them, about, like, a 15-minute radius from the factory, yeah, we have a school bus driver that brings them to the grocery store twice a week, we have a 24-hour one for any emergency, I've had myself have to drive some of the hospitals, like, two in the morning, stayed there for about 10 hours for him, do you guys try them to work also? Yeah, every morning, we, the school bus pick them up and bring them to work, and, you know, some people, like, sometimes, you know, we just need some part of the factory yard, so we'll bring them, bring them back home, then come back to the factory, wait an hour, and bring another batch home, and same, we also started, some people just not fortunate enough to have a car or a license, local, so we do offer some, some driving services, it's not too far. Okay, yeah, and, since you're a fishing organization, mostly, what parts of the organization close during off-seasons? I would say the factory, I think it was slower, but there is some, like, for instance, two weeks to a month throughout the year that our factory is back up and running again, and it's just to prepare ourselves for some order we have in, or some season that are not too far away from us, maybe Nova Scotia, or PEI, or down south in New Brunswick, or maybe in Quebec, you know, Boston, Maine, sometimes we buy a little lobster if it's good price, get the factory up back and running again, but I would say, like, when, like, except for April, May, June, July, and like, like, the end of August, start of September, like, the factory is not booming as much, same with the, I would say the office is always full, but just the hours a lot less mandating than usual. Oh yeah, yeah. When you first started managing the company and taking over after your father, was there any obstacles you had to go ahead with the staffing, or just the organization in general? Yeah, definitely I had to learn from some hard mistakes, just when me and my brother bought it from our dad, actually, just the way we started to work, you know, he pretty much did, him and his brother did, like, everything by themselves, but we were really ambitious and got a lot of, a lot of, like, improvement right away, we're trying to, like, go bigger, and we're trying to do all by ourselves, and that was just bad in terms of the management, like, a lot of problem came up early on, and we just, it took us a while to adjust, to be honest, and go talk to people, talk to friends out of business, and who to hire, what better choice we can take, like, as, like, managing, because trying to manage everything is usually, it's like, it's like, it's usually setting up yourself for failure or mistakes, so for sure, just, we got in touch with the right people, and got some really, really good quality employees to manage. And when you guys fully took, took over the organization, was there a bit of pushback from the already existing employees, or did everyone kind of? No, I don't believe so, I think it's fine, like, some of them, I was working with them in the factory when I was younger, and they're still there to this day, we have a lot of respect for each other, I think, I think it's actually a good thing, you know, it's a small, small town, everybody knows each other, we try to be as friendly as possible, and as much, as much fun as we can, and have a, have a nice little work, work environment. Okay, yeah. Now, can you tell us a bit about the organization's history, like, the company's history? Yeah, for sure, so it was founded by my grandfather in 1962, so the middle of the 70s, I'd say, beginning of the 70s, and then, sorry, in the 70s, I believe, yeah, in the 70s, then my dad and his brother took over the company, soon after, it, like, went officially, like, an official market, and after, I would say, in 1983 or 84, a lot of expenditure from the company, so got some more licensing, some, some renovation for the factory, and at the time, it was still only my, my dad and his brother working, and then, in 2009, I worked there for about 20 years, like, at that time, and so, after a little less than 30 years of management, my dad decided to sell us and retire the, to retire and sell the company to me and my brother, and, yeah, that's when we started our little journey in 2009, and we never looked back since, which is nice, and I think a lot of people said not to mix business with family, but we're, we're the third generation, going on the fourth generation, with my son coming up, and, and I think that it's worked great so far, we've been having a lot of fun, a lot of faithful customer, so, yeah, we're looking good so far. All right, cool, so, switching things up a little, how diverse and, how diverse is the educational background for your employees? Are they mostly, or, like, how, how is the education level? In the, in the, the offices, me and, and my brother, I actually never graduated from university, funny enough, and our, our employees are required either a certificate in accounting or finance or a bachelor in accounting or finance to work, to work in the offices, and then for the few managers that we have in the offices, we have two, two in the main one, and then there's two in the factory, okay, and in the, also in the, the market, yeah, and they're not necessarily in need of education, two of them do have a bachelor, but most of them just have a really good work experience, and we just know them for being such small town, good workers, and when, in terms of manager, what we're really looking for is people that we can, like, trust really well, so, yeah, that's been, yeah, that's been it so far. And do you try to hire people that are a little, a little bit more social, like, what are their social styles? Um, I, we don't really look into that, to be honest, yeah, we just mostly skill, and yeah, mostly skill, and if, you know, some people that have worked for us before are really skilled, just haven't worked, you know, like, some, for some people, they'll do a horrible job, one job, really good job, another job, nothing, you know, there's not, there's no mold, you know, like, so, yeah, for sure, yeah, we definitely find some good worker that's been with us for a long time now, so we adjusted, but yeah, definitely have some, some nightmares. Yeah, no, I can imagine. Is there a big range in age in your organization, or is everyone kind of the median age? Uh, it depends, I would say the offices, pretty much all over 40, just because while hiring, we're looking for people with experience, that's our main requirement, and for the market up front, the little lobster shop we have, the seafood shop, there in the summer, that's our busy time of the year, and it's mostly, I would say, like, college student coming back home, or high schoolers getting some jobs, but for this factory, range from 17 all the way up to six years old, I'd say. Okay, yeah, yeah, and how old were you when you took over? I was 30, 34, I believe. 34? Yeah. Okay, okay, well, that's all the time we have. Thank you so much, Bruno, for taking your time, for coming in. Thank you, I hope my broken English wasn't too hard on your professor. No, I think your English is quite understandable. Perfect, thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye.