We all spend our days moving at 1,000 miles per hour putting out fires, meeting with customers, talking on the phone, talking to our team, our second family, our work family. We get knocks on our doors. We get interrupted 12 times. We eat at our desks. Before you know it, the workday (in the office) is over and you think back “what did I actually get done today?”
And then we repeat it over and over again, day after day. We leave very early in the morning and come home late to be greeted by our families who always save the day with their many smiles and distractions. But, of course, you’re always on call. You still read email at night and sometimes put out late night fires. Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and email yourself 8 times with reminders of what you need to do in the morning?
This is my life, and I haven’t pictured it any other way, until now.
Did you ever imagine driving to work with no traffic? NO, not on a Sunday, but for weeks at a time. Did you ever imagine walking into your building on a Monday and you realize that you are the only one going to work today? No chatter, no laughing, no pallet jacks and forklifts drowning out the tape guns from the people making boxes and packing product. No sewing machines humming. No fires to put out. No phones ringing and no one knocking at your door interrupting 12 times. Be careful what you wish for…
MOST importantly, did you ever imagine your business without your team, your second family? It hit me the first day I walked into the building and saw lots of work and no one working. Yes, there have been times where there may be less work and less people working, but not like this.
Do you ever sit back and think about how important every single person in your organization is? That you are just a small cog in that big wheel. I would assume that it’s happening with all of you now. Our business is ALL people ALL the time in our building. There is no such thing as “remote” working for us. We depend on every single person to be here every day for 8 hours.
Now, all I can think of during those 8-10 hours in my office is how everyone is doing? What are they thinking? When am I going back to work? How will I pay all my bills? Will I get sick? Will my family get sick?
Thankfully, everyone is ok and healthy! Our leadership team has been calling everyone weekly and in some cases two to three times per week to see how they’re doing. Also, to see if they need anything from us.
I miss the mayhem. I miss the knocks on my office door. I miss the phone calls from customers. I miss the distractions. I miss the interruptions. But more than anything I miss our people, our second family. The laughs. I miss that feeling of accomplishment we get at the end of every day.
Please check out the pictures of the fun we have at Darn It! from time to time. Our tag line has always been “Your Problem is our Business”. We just changed it on our website (www.darnit.com) to “Our People are the Business”.
Stay Healthy. Stay Strong. We will be back to whatever normal is going to be—soon!
Jeff
