If you follow me on Twitter you may have reached your tolerance level of me talking about how great my new employer is. If that's the case, you may just want to skip this post. I'm taking all those tweets and going into detail.
The last two jobs I had before this one were about as polar opposite as you could get. I went from working for my dad in a company of about 10 (3 of which were related to me) to working for someone I would never actually meet in a company of about 130,000. I had a lot of "benefits" that probably weren't listed in your package while working for my dad. Including but not limited to: working with my family, bringing my dog to work, fun parties, and my boss bought me lunch practically ever day. I got to take vacations when the boss did and I was able to work on projects most recent college grads only dreamed of getting their hands on that soon after graduation. Then I went to a corporate giant. Sure, the 401k match was nice, I had stock options and the pay was substantial. I never even so much as shook hands with the owner. The president of my division couldn't pick me out of a line-up and I was over the moon when the VP (my boss' boss' boss) knew my name.
I'm somewhere in the middle now. There's about 60 people at the new company. The President not only interviewed me, but personally offered me the job and the CEO has stopped by my office twice just to see how I'm doing. This company was recently named on the Journal Sentinel's list of Top 100 Places to Work in WI. And I've learned very quickly in my first week why that comes as very little surprise to the employees.
Today is my fifth day. Since starting I've attended a mini-baby shower and a company wide celebration (for the honor on the list). They are currently planting a company garden out front of our office. Being Friday, not only is it Jeans day (which we all know how I feel about those), it's also Bring Your Dog to Work Day. Every Friday is. Every other Friday in the summer, we all get together and grill a picnic lunch. Part of the benefits package includes the company giving each employee one day a year, full-pay, to donate to a non-profit of their choice and contribute time to community service. I get about three e-mails a day about birthday treats or snacks in the break room.
Here's the thing about those benefits. Will they increase my retirement fund? No. Is it covering more of my health insurance cost? Not at all. However, most of them don't cost the company a dime. And the ones that do aren't atrociously expensive. But what they do for morale and employee happiness? Well, it obviously pays off. The list they were placed on is based entirely on employee survey results. The employees here work hard. They're passionate, dedicated and loyal as can be, I've seen it and I've just started here. But they're happy to work for the people they do.
A friend asked today, in response to all the fun tweets, "How are you getting any work done with all the fun going on?" And I'm certain this is the same questions most CEOs or Presidents of companies ask when someone proposes activities like this. But like I told her, people are more productive in less time here than at my previous company. They work hard so they can play hard. And the leadership trusts in them to accomplish what needs to be done, then rewards them when they get it done. Unfortunately, this is a novel concept to so many managers.
So, I'm new. I'm sure it's not all rainbows and butterflies and no company will ever be perfect. But for now, I'm so thankful to be working for this fantastic company and look forward to contributing to it. And, honestly, that's a damn good situation to be in when it comes to work.
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