June 30, 2011
Dear Everyone:
Some decades ago, I used to run a very large file
room on the fourth floor of Building 3 in “Pleasant Hill”.
The room took up most of the floor and the building was about 200
yards long, so you can tell it was a large file collection.
The folders were housed in something we called “buckets”, plastic
boxes that “hung” from rails to form “open face” filing.
This allowed us to have many more files per square inch of floor
space than traditional filing cabinets.
One spring day,
Easter was coming and all the
stores had bags of chocolate “eggs” wrapped in brightly colored foil on
sale. I began to wonder
“what would happen” if some of those “eggs” found their way into the
files. Many files consisted
of multiple “file pockets” capable of holding a chocolate “egg” on top
of thick paper contents.
So I bought a bag, or so, and waited until lunch
time, when it was guaranteed that no one would be in the file room.
Keeping an eye on the doors, I “sprinkled” the “eggs” throughout
the files.
A couple of hours later, a file clerk shot out of
the files area shouting, “I just found a chocolate Easter egg in the
file I’m working on!” (OK,
she ended a sentence in a
preposition.
She barely finished
High School and chalk it up to the excitement
of the moment.)
Everyone was terribly interested and, before you
knew it, they all wanted to do filing, a task that very few cherished.
Until they realized that they didn’t have to any actual filing,
they only had to hunt for “eggs”.
In the role of “dispassionate observer”, I
explained that chocolate made people feel better because it induced the
brain to produce a substance known as “endorphins”.
(The same as you get from strenuous exercise and certain sexual
activities.) After that,
instead of “egg” hunting, they called it “endorphin hunting”.
That’s when I realized the advantage of having
“goodies” in the work area.
Even when people don’t indulge in candy, chocolate or other tasty
substances, just knowing that they are readily available makes them (the
people) more relaxed and happier.
And that makes for a more harmonious work environment.
And I’ve been supplying “goodies” ever since.
In “Livermore”, we had a large, glass jar, known
as “The Goody Jar” on a centrally located table.
At one point in time, the supervisor even authorized having the
Company reimburse me for the cost, calling it “miscellaneous office
supplies”.
Today, the “Goody Basket” is a wire basket hung
from a couple of large magnets on the metal wall in my office.
The manager just stopped by to report on something and, “by the
way” pick up a piece of chocolate.
One co-worker routinely stops by on her way out the door for “one
for the road.”
My advice:
Get ‘em while they’re still around.
In a few weeks, the basket will still be there, but the supply
will not. I’m already
clearing stuff out of the desk, the file cabinet, the closet.
Good thing I didn’t get rid of that “extra”
umbrella hanging in the closet.
It rained like the Dickens two days ago, a rare occurrence in
June. Two weeks left….
Love, as always,
Pete
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