A good friend of mine recently told me about an experience a woman at his business had.
She apparently worked as a janitor in the company for many years.
And being a janitor is a pretty thankless job which most of us probably consider as being down the ladder in terms of careers.
I don’t think anyone would see this type of job as being a whole lot of fun.
My friend told me that the company recently changed owners and within the first week, the new owner wrote a personal thank you card to every employee and had his assistant go around and distribute them.
When this particular lady received and opened her card, she burst into tears and asked if she could be excused from work.
Her supervisor thought she must have been ill and therefore she was allowed to leave for the rest of the day.
But here’s what really prompted the emotional response from this janitor lady.
This is the real story – management found out a few days later that this lovely woman had never received even a verbal thank you from the previous owners and management, much less a personal card or greeting.
And wait for it – she had worked for the company for 30 years!
So she was absolutely overwhelmed when the new owner gave her a card of appreciation.
And wait, there’s more – she had been thinking that the change of ownership was probably a good time to quit and she was planning to hand in her resignation that very day.
Of course, she didn’t end up quitting – because that little extra effort from the new owner to send a simple thank you card helped her realise that she was now working for a trustworthy owner and management.
You see, it wasn’t the big stuff that made this lady feel appreciated and important. It was the small stuff like a thank you card.
Sometimes that’s all you need to do!
