Monday, September 24, 2007

It's the Little Things

I regularly bust my butt for my job. Most of the time, it's noticed, but not necessarily recognized. Imagine my surprise when my boss forwarded me the following email.

BOSS: I thought you should see this. Don’t sell your client service short – not everyone performs at the level you do, and it is appropriate to be recognized. (If this was the norm, I don’t think {Senior Engineer} would have taken the time to share this). You really do outstanding work every day and are a great ambassador for the team.

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FROM SENIOR ENGINEER:

Boss,

Last Friday at around 4:30 a client called with a panicked last minute request for company information on our firm. A Town board meeting had been scheduled for Monday evening to discuss re-development plans for a 15 acre parcel in Ridgefield, NJ. The firm is providing environmental due diligence support to a team of developers, architects and attorneys on a project to re-develop a total of 45 acres of former industrial property along a creek. They wanted to prepare a package of team qualifications to leave with the Town mayor and council.

Anticipating that the office would be empty late on a Friday afternoon, I went down to marketing and found {Wenderina} working at her desk. When she heard my problem, {Wenderina} immediately offered to help, asked questions about the project and the purpose of the meeting and walked me over to the room where the marketing materials are stored. She pulled out a few appropriate brochures and asked where they had to be sent and when. After hearing the documents needed to be sent to two addressees for Saturday delivery, {Wenderina} offered to send the materials out to fill out the shipping forms and drop them off at FedEx on her way home.

What I originally thought was going to be another late Friday afternoon headache with no support to be found anywhere, actually turned out to be a pleasant surprise and a positive experience. {Wenderina} made my problem her problem and, on top of everything else, was pleasant to deal with. All too often we only hear when something goes off the rails. We should recognize when someone steps up and goes above and beyond to get a job done.

My thanks to {Wenderina},

Senior Engineer

This was by far one of the easiest tasks I've done in years...but sometimes, it's the little things that matter.

2 comments:

AmyBow said...

That is wonderful.

It does amaze me what some people recognize as going above and beyond. I think it more has to do with the people doing the recognizing. You can bust your butt for an a** and they expect it; do a little bit for a nice person and they show actual appreciation.

Two gold stars for you!

Mrs. Booms said...

Isn't it funny how the little things are the ones you get all praise for? Eat it up, because you've done plenty of sh*t with little to no recognition.

Doing a happy dance in your general direction.