Kindness at work
November 10, 2020 12:26 PM Subscribe
Ask A Manager says: let's talk about kindness at work. "Now let’s talk about times at work when people have gone out of their way to do good or be kind. Please share stories of kindness at work in the comments." Lots of appreciation, generosity, and people stepping up in hard moments -- and "a coworker who, if I was detained by crap commute on our monthly free bagel Friday, would save me a fresh, still warm chocolate chip bagel that would otherwise have been snatched up".
My company is being IMMENSELY AND ENORMOUSLY GREAT about my getting injured. They've offered the CEO's driver to bring me to and from doctor's visits a couple times, my boss asks me how my physical therapy has been going every time we speak, and they've sent me TWO bunches of flowers and a big container of homemade soup to help with the meal prep.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:37 PM on November 10, 2020 [21 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:37 PM on November 10, 2020 [21 favorites]
I have lots of stories I could tell you about kindness at work, but few if any of them involve managers.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:38 PM on November 10, 2020 [11 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:38 PM on November 10, 2020 [11 favorites]
it's a bit of a sidetrack from article but honestly i think the best form of kindness at work is CLARITY. so may places suffer from lack of clarity around roles, responsibilities, deadlines, etc... i want to know all the stories of times when bosses and managers and employees made everything really clear for everybody. ;)
posted by danjo at 12:42 PM on November 10, 2020 [21 favorites]
posted by danjo at 12:42 PM on November 10, 2020 [21 favorites]
This story -- "We will help carry the load." -- really touched me.
The Card Cheat: "Ask A Manager" is a blog about the working world in general, and the host is a person who speaks from a managerial perspective, but the comments on this thread range all around and many of the kindnesses are from colleagues, customers, and other non-managers. I'd love to hear some of your stories!
posted by brainwane at 12:45 PM on November 10, 2020 [6 favorites]
Right now my work is parenthood and today a woman stopped to tell me I was doing a good job. This has happened three times in the three years I’ve been a parent. I remember and cherish every time. It’s truly made a huge difference in my life. Climbing on my soap box for a moment: if you see a parent out and about just say the words “you are doing a good job.” It is a major kindness.
posted by CMcG at 12:46 PM on November 10, 2020 [18 favorites]
posted by CMcG at 12:46 PM on November 10, 2020 [18 favorites]
danjo: I think you might like this story.
posted by brainwane at 12:46 PM on November 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by brainwane at 12:46 PM on November 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
I usually work late shift, which would run until 1 a.m. my local time, which is totally fine as I'm a night owl. I'd get up with the kids at 6:30, see them all off to school around 8:30, and then go back to bed for a couple hours, and it worked great! But with the kids home ALL DAY EVERY DAY for Covid, I couldn't get midmorning naps anymore because they are never quiet and I was just literally non-functional from getting 5 hours of sleep a night.
Mentioned this at a staff meeting and MetaFilter shifted the entire workday for the site back by one hour, so I can go to bed at local midnight, even though it means some of our European team now starts their day stupid early, which they all insisted was no big deal. Massive quality of life improvement for me and I am very grateful.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:53 PM on November 10, 2020 [70 favorites]
Mentioned this at a staff meeting and MetaFilter shifted the entire workday for the site back by one hour, so I can go to bed at local midnight, even though it means some of our European team now starts their day stupid early, which they all insisted was no big deal. Massive quality of life improvement for me and I am very grateful.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:53 PM on November 10, 2020 [70 favorites]
I didn't really work well with my second-to-last manager -- he was terrible at delegating and that really held me back -- but I will always be thankful for having him in my life when I pinched a nerve in my neck and had to go on extended leave for almost a quarter because sitting was agony. Zero stress from him. "Just get better" he said.
He's a real kind man and I will take his example forward.
posted by Sauce Trough at 12:58 PM on November 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
He's a real kind man and I will take his example forward.
posted by Sauce Trough at 12:58 PM on November 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
I'm touched by many of those stories, but also saddened by how many of them consisted of "My immediate boss and/or co-workers banded together to protect me from my employer's completely inhumane leave policies, which otherwise would have fucked me over while I was dealing with a family emergency."
posted by jacquilynne at 1:01 PM on November 10, 2020 [23 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 1:01 PM on November 10, 2020 [23 favorites]
danjo: a few more for you, on clarity at work: a great boss who helped all her supervisees think specifically about their careers, a boss who gave useful constructive feedback about communication patterns, and a hiring manager and a colleague who warn that someone gave/would give a bad reference. And here's a policy clarification that helps everyone.
posted by brainwane at 1:08 PM on November 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by brainwane at 1:08 PM on November 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
Ask a Manager is really great! So many fascinating stories that people write in, and it's set up so that at the bottom of each page there are links to 3 similar stories; you can easily spend hours being entertained by all the crazy ways people behave at work. She has also just run 2 pages of machivellian triumphs, which are also gold.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:11 PM on November 10, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:11 PM on November 10, 2020 [7 favorites]
Last year I did bookkeeping for someone who totally could have paid me under the table. She was a one-person company. She went out of her way to hire me on as an employee.
And sometimes sent me home with zucchini.
posted by aniola at 1:14 PM on November 10, 2020 [6 favorites]
And sometimes sent me home with zucchini.
posted by aniola at 1:14 PM on November 10, 2020 [6 favorites]
A while back I had a boss at a tourism bike shop who was a former lawyer. When we left, he offered letters of recommendation. And let me tell you, a letter of recommendation from a person trained as a lawyer can be quite thorough and detailed.
posted by aniola at 1:15 PM on November 10, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by aniola at 1:15 PM on November 10, 2020 [5 favorites]
“We will help carry the load. No one will ever say you didn’t do your best.”
My wife got cancer. Even though we had great health insurance and supportive family and access to world-class hospitals & doctors, it stressed me out like being lit on fire every damn day for six months. And when I told my boss, he just said, "Go. Do what you have to do. We'll take care of things." It was such a relief to have that blanket permission.
When it came time for someone else to get their turn in the barrel a couple years later, and I was the manager, I felt delighted and very...fulfilled?.. to be able to say, "Go. Do what you have to do. We'll take care of things."
posted by wenestvedt at 1:25 PM on November 10, 2020 [34 favorites]
My wife got cancer. Even though we had great health insurance and supportive family and access to world-class hospitals & doctors, it stressed me out like being lit on fire every damn day for six months. And when I told my boss, he just said, "Go. Do what you have to do. We'll take care of things." It was such a relief to have that blanket permission.
When it came time for someone else to get their turn in the barrel a couple years later, and I was the manager, I felt delighted and very...fulfilled?.. to be able to say, "Go. Do what you have to do. We'll take care of things."
posted by wenestvedt at 1:25 PM on November 10, 2020 [34 favorites]
Oh and there was this one time I was working on a 80-person "eco" cruise ship, and my boss asked the captain to get to do something thrill-seeking. So the daringest co-workers got to jump off from the top of the highest story of the boat into the water.
But apparently that wasn't thrilling enough.
So the day before we pulled into port for the end of the season, all the crew went out on dinghies, and when we were all out there behind the ship, my boss got on a paddle-board and held onto a rope that was attached to the back of that ship. And surfed behind that massive boat for like 10 minutes. Hopefully it was thrilling enough to count!
posted by aniola at 1:26 PM on November 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
But apparently that wasn't thrilling enough.
So the day before we pulled into port for the end of the season, all the crew went out on dinghies, and when we were all out there behind the ship, my boss got on a paddle-board and held onto a rope that was attached to the back of that ship. And surfed behind that massive boat for like 10 minutes. Hopefully it was thrilling enough to count!
posted by aniola at 1:26 PM on November 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
"Go. Do what you have to do. We'll take care of things."
On a different scale, I had a few bosses like that during finals when I was in college.
posted by aniola at 1:27 PM on November 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
On a different scale, I had a few bosses like that during finals when I was in college.
posted by aniola at 1:27 PM on November 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
When my mom passed away suddenly, my coworkers banded together and sent flowers to my home. But not just any flower arrangement. One of them remembered that I had felines and took the time to make sure that the arrangement was safe for cats.
There have been a thousand small things about my coworkers that make this best job I've ever had, I can honestly say that every single one of them is wonderful. But the fact that one remembered I had cats when sending flowers. Amazing.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 1:43 PM on November 10, 2020 [12 favorites]
There have been a thousand small things about my coworkers that make this best job I've ever had, I can honestly say that every single one of them is wonderful. But the fact that one remembered I had cats when sending flowers. Amazing.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 1:43 PM on November 10, 2020 [12 favorites]
WTF IS A CHOCOLATE CHIP BAGEL
A baked good that exists solely to troll New Yorkers.
posted by betweenthebars at 2:01 PM on November 10, 2020 [21 favorites]
A baked good that exists solely to troll New Yorkers.
posted by betweenthebars at 2:01 PM on November 10, 2020 [21 favorites]
My favorite kind manager story is this: Early in my career at BART, I was tasked with sitting in on the meetings about how we were going to retrofit the Transbay Tube (the underwater tunnel that takes the trains across the San Francisco Bay) to survive a major earthquake--8.0 or worse. Part of the process was talking about all the truly horrifying scenarios that could happen if the Tube failed because of an earthquake (or sabotage--which is another story). I took the train through the tube to and from work each day at the time.
Well, as the meetings proceeded and I listened to more and more possibilities, I started to freak out--I started having anxiety attacks as my commute took me through the Tube. I was miserable.
My boss at the time was a statistician--not very empathic or even the kind of person you sat around chatting with about the weekend, etc. But finally I felt I had to say something to him. I shared my anxiety and rather than dismissing it, he took out a sheet of paper and starting doing some calculations: The Tube is X feet long, the trains typically travel at 70-80 mph through the area, so you are in the Tube for X amount of time during the day which is .00001% of your day (or something equally tiny). The chance of you being in the Tube at the wrong time is X% which is less likely that a small plan crashing on your house...and so on. It really made me feel better, it was not something I could do for myself (I am not a numbers person) and I so appreciated it. He took my worry seriously, he took the time to walk through his calculations instead of scoffing at me, it was very kind.
20 or so years later we are now almost finished with the retrofit and the Tube (and the whole system) is much more resilient than it was.
posted by agatha_magatha at 2:22 PM on November 10, 2020 [47 favorites]
Well, as the meetings proceeded and I listened to more and more possibilities, I started to freak out--I started having anxiety attacks as my commute took me through the Tube. I was miserable.
My boss at the time was a statistician--not very empathic or even the kind of person you sat around chatting with about the weekend, etc. But finally I felt I had to say something to him. I shared my anxiety and rather than dismissing it, he took out a sheet of paper and starting doing some calculations: The Tube is X feet long, the trains typically travel at 70-80 mph through the area, so you are in the Tube for X amount of time during the day which is .00001% of your day (or something equally tiny). The chance of you being in the Tube at the wrong time is X% which is less likely that a small plan crashing on your house...and so on. It really made me feel better, it was not something I could do for myself (I am not a numbers person) and I so appreciated it. He took my worry seriously, he took the time to walk through his calculations instead of scoffing at me, it was very kind.
20 or so years later we are now almost finished with the retrofit and the Tube (and the whole system) is much more resilient than it was.
posted by agatha_magatha at 2:22 PM on November 10, 2020 [47 favorites]
She has also just run 2 pages of machivellian triumphs, which are also gold.
Though not a patch on this.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 2:39 PM on November 10, 2020
Though not a patch on this.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 2:39 PM on November 10, 2020
I will never forget Leo, the old guy who trained me on the bottle labeler at Molson's Fleet Street brewery in the late eighties. He was a pure 50's greaser throwback with slicked duck-tailed hair. rolled up Levi's and sleeved out with tats back when that was a hardman thing. He took me, a 19 year old son of company exec working as a summer temp, under his wing and showed me not only how to do my job but how to do it really well and with consideration for my other co-workers. All the ins and outs and even the tricks the workers used to carve out a bit of space and autonomy from the supervisors and foremen. He is the example I keep in mind whenever I teach anyone how to do things now. It is not enough to merely explain how things are supposed to work....you have to explain both that and how things actually work in messy reality. He was kind of like my real world Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance guy.
posted by srboisvert at 3:43 PM on November 10, 2020 [19 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 3:43 PM on November 10, 2020 [19 favorites]
WTF IS A CHOCOLATE CHIP BAGEL
A donut.
posted by anshuman at 4:02 PM on November 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
A donut.
posted by anshuman at 4:02 PM on November 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
I've had the opportunity to observe the 10-15 other managers in the organizations I've worked with and everyone has their own personal agenda.
Some are insecure and fearful of being fired or demoted and so try to avoid making any mistakes, which strangles their team.
Some are gunning hard for their next promotion at any cost, so they step on people and take credit away from others.
Some have mentally checked out and are just counting out the days until they collect their pension.
Some are devoting as little energy to work as possible because they have more important issues in their lives, which is totally fair. Special needs child, sick parent, or mental health issues.
As a staff working for these kinds of managers it's highly unlikely you will have a good experience.
Then there are the rare managers who are genuinely in the business of mentoring and growing the people who work under them. Maybe 1 in 10 are like this.
I have a completely arrogant attitude towards work. I believe I'm smart enough to tackle anything that comes my way, both analytically and politically. So if a high performing staff who works for me wants help progressing to a new position, I'm going to help him as much as I can because he deserves it and I'm confident I can hire / train someone new to replace him. If a low performing staff wants help progressing to a new position, I'm also going to help him as much as I can because I want to get rid of him... coach him in interview technique, brush up his resume, investigate behind the scenes to see what the hiring manager wants...
If a high performing staff wants to go off on a 3 month unpaid leave of absence, why not, he deserves it, and I will gain long term goodwill upon his return. If a low performing staff wants to go off on a 3 month unpaid leave of absence, why not, I never really needed him anyway.
All things which have actually happened. And if my team messes up at work and I get fired or demoted, I'm also confident I can get a new job somewhere else.
posted by xdvesper at 4:45 PM on November 10, 2020 [7 favorites]
Some are insecure and fearful of being fired or demoted and so try to avoid making any mistakes, which strangles their team.
Some are gunning hard for their next promotion at any cost, so they step on people and take credit away from others.
Some have mentally checked out and are just counting out the days until they collect their pension.
Some are devoting as little energy to work as possible because they have more important issues in their lives, which is totally fair. Special needs child, sick parent, or mental health issues.
As a staff working for these kinds of managers it's highly unlikely you will have a good experience.
Then there are the rare managers who are genuinely in the business of mentoring and growing the people who work under them. Maybe 1 in 10 are like this.
I have a completely arrogant attitude towards work. I believe I'm smart enough to tackle anything that comes my way, both analytically and politically. So if a high performing staff who works for me wants help progressing to a new position, I'm going to help him as much as I can because he deserves it and I'm confident I can hire / train someone new to replace him. If a low performing staff wants help progressing to a new position, I'm also going to help him as much as I can because I want to get rid of him... coach him in interview technique, brush up his resume, investigate behind the scenes to see what the hiring manager wants...
If a high performing staff wants to go off on a 3 month unpaid leave of absence, why not, he deserves it, and I will gain long term goodwill upon his return. If a low performing staff wants to go off on a 3 month unpaid leave of absence, why not, I never really needed him anyway.
All things which have actually happened. And if my team messes up at work and I get fired or demoted, I'm also confident I can get a new job somewhere else.
posted by xdvesper at 4:45 PM on November 10, 2020 [7 favorites]
(Shit, y'all, now I feel bad about the slack-ass managing I've been doing.)
Does it help that I happily wrote the letter of recommendation to help one of my Unix System Administrators get into the International Yacht Restoration School? I didn't want to let him go, but I couldn't hold him back; he attended and now is a happy ship..maker. Or whatever.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:06 PM on November 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
Does it help that I happily wrote the letter of recommendation to help one of my Unix System Administrators get into the International Yacht Restoration School? I didn't want to let him go, but I couldn't hold him back; he attended and now is a happy ship..maker. Or whatever.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:06 PM on November 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
current manager is best boss i have had. the most dramatic example is that within weeks of being hired, a close friend died and like @wenestvedt describes i was given a blanket pass: take all the time you need. even though boss didn't have to give me paid mourners leave (our collective agreement only entitles for immediate family), i was given a week off paid while i drowned in grief.
less dramatic but so important, this is the first manager i've had who goes out of their way to help me save face. when i make mistakes i am never hung out to dry. my manager has my back-- something i had not experienced previously. i am given the benefit of the doubt, i am not micromanaged, and i'm supported when i want to go do professional development.
i have tried to mirror this as i'm now a first-time mini-boss (supervisor and team lead). i aim to give my direct reports and my team the kindness and benefit of the doubt i've received. it's not my first nature to be chill or casual, but i've learned some helpful examples of how to be a more human/humane boss.
this is the thread i needed today. thank you.
posted by tamarack at 6:15 PM on November 10, 2020 [6 favorites]
less dramatic but so important, this is the first manager i've had who goes out of their way to help me save face. when i make mistakes i am never hung out to dry. my manager has my back-- something i had not experienced previously. i am given the benefit of the doubt, i am not micromanaged, and i'm supported when i want to go do professional development.
i have tried to mirror this as i'm now a first-time mini-boss (supervisor and team lead). i aim to give my direct reports and my team the kindness and benefit of the doubt i've received. it's not my first nature to be chill or casual, but i've learned some helpful examples of how to be a more human/humane boss.
this is the thread i needed today. thank you.
posted by tamarack at 6:15 PM on November 10, 2020 [6 favorites]
I'll never forget the time I had been at a new job for all of a month when my apartment was destroyed by a flood. I got a personal call from the CEO (of a ~1200-employee, publicly-traded company, who I had never met, who wasn't even based in the same state as me) offering to put me up in a hotel for a couple weeks. Someone elevated my news all the way to the CEO, and the company wasn't just checking up on me - they were willing to shell out hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars, to make sure I had a safe place to stay. It really meant a lot to me.
posted by mandanza at 9:59 PM on November 10, 2020 [11 favorites]
posted by mandanza at 9:59 PM on November 10, 2020 [11 favorites]
My dad died very unexpectedly and in difficult circumstances. My boss just told me to take whatever time I needed and my colleagues were very kind. As a result I try to pay it forward whenever I can.
posted by plonkee at 12:35 AM on November 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by plonkee at 12:35 AM on November 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
Way back when, I was working as an hourly employee in an office and about once a month there was a high level board type meeting where all the attendees got a really nice boxed lunch. On a day with one of these meetings, I was feeling upset and the CEO happened to walk past my cubicle and he noticed my sad/overwhelmed/stressed expression. He then came back and gave me one of the boxed lunches (it might have been a spare, it might have been his—I am not sure). He did not make a big deal out of it, so I didn’t get too embarrassed and it was really, really delicious.
We never really talked before or after that, so it was just an incredibly kind thing he did because he thought it might help.
posted by pie_seven at 12:47 AM on November 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
We never really talked before or after that, so it was just an incredibly kind thing he did because he thought it might help.
posted by pie_seven at 12:47 AM on November 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
WTF IS A CHOCOLATE CHIP BAGEL
Delicious, you people
when done right
posted by trig at 2:40 AM on November 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
Delicious, you people
when done right
posted by trig at 2:40 AM on November 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
Many good stories here.
I feel like it's my turn to step up now, as we've just moved back to WFH as the second wave is hitting us. We have several people just out of school that started this summer, and all of them have just moved to the city and don't really know many people. I've decided to ask them along occasionally when I walk the dog, and show them a bit around town and get them some fresh air and company. Can't possibly hurt, at least.
posted by Harald74 at 3:55 AM on November 11, 2020 [5 favorites]
I feel like it's my turn to step up now, as we've just moved back to WFH as the second wave is hitting us. We have several people just out of school that started this summer, and all of them have just moved to the city and don't really know many people. I've decided to ask them along occasionally when I walk the dog, and show them a bit around town and get them some fresh air and company. Can't possibly hurt, at least.
posted by Harald74 at 3:55 AM on November 11, 2020 [5 favorites]
My boss always brings me a coffee when they get one themselves. It's a small thing but its so nice.
Also I'm technically hourly, but sometimes they let me leave early on Friday and still pay me for the full day (small company, they own it).
posted by stillnocturnal at 4:17 AM on November 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
Also I'm technically hourly, but sometimes they let me leave early on Friday and still pay me for the full day (small company, they own it).
posted by stillnocturnal at 4:17 AM on November 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
I once worked a summer stipend position at an R1 university, where they (wildly!) informed us after several weeks of work in June that we would not receive a paycheck until after Labor Day. I, a young person with rent to pay, went to my supervisor and basically said "welp I cannot do this job if I cannot pay to live here, so I have to quit and go back to retail, sorry to leave you in the lurch" -- and this guy, no joke, wrote me a personal check for the amount of money I needed and then some, and said I could pay it back to him whenever the university actually paid me for my work.
Even now I am startled by his generosity -- and frankly, his trust that some 21-year-old he barely knew would pay him back. I loved that job (aside from the labor law violations) and would have been sad to leave it. That was a good dude.
posted by goodbyewaffles at 7:05 AM on November 11, 2020 [6 favorites]
Even now I am startled by his generosity -- and frankly, his trust that some 21-year-old he barely knew would pay him back. I loved that job (aside from the labor law violations) and would have been sad to leave it. That was a good dude.
posted by goodbyewaffles at 7:05 AM on November 11, 2020 [6 favorites]
I've actually never had a truly bad direct boss. Even the one that micromanaged everything pushed so hard for us for extra bonuses and serious promotions. Now boss's bosses - 50% of them have been terrible - either completely checked out, nice but too timid to do anything, or a raging jerk.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:56 AM on November 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:56 AM on November 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
When I was at Citigroup, I had an excellent boss.
We started off on not the best foot, because I like my previous boss and he quit when the man who became my boss was put into a position above the previous boss, who expected that position (said previous boss also left me in the lurch and someday I will get that refund for the Girl Scout cookies I prepaid for).
Rudy proceeded to spend a half-hour with each of us in our cubes to learn our jobs and talk to us about our interests and career plans, which was unusual. He also was a proponent of us getting hired on instead of being temps, and got us hired on. Later, after we’d both moved on inside the company, he recruited me to a team he was starting because he remembered me and the things I did.
(We were merged with another group, and they had a huge ticket backlog, and I burned most of a summer to try to catch it up, working 8 AM to 10 PM 5 days a week and then usually a day on a weekend, at a time I was an hourly employee, and he not only signed off on my checks, but most Fridays when he left around 7, he’d stop by and give me a signed voucher for car service, so I didn’t need to worry about public transportation home.)
About then, went to bat for me later to keep me some benefits: I was hired on the Citicorp side, so at the five year mark I had 15 days of vacation, and then they tried to unify it with the Solomon Smith Barney side, which meant that they wanted us to basically lose a week, and he fought to let me keep it.
He also fought for me when I had a depression breakdown, to the point he drove to my apartment to ask me what was going on, and helped get me treatment.
When he had to let me go, we were both very upset, but that depression incident and its side effects on my record apparently were why I was chosen in a massive layoff in 2010.
We keep in touch and he still is willing to respond to people asking for references, so I guess that’s good.
posted by mephron at 12:58 PM on November 11, 2020 [4 favorites]
We started off on not the best foot, because I like my previous boss and he quit when the man who became my boss was put into a position above the previous boss, who expected that position (said previous boss also left me in the lurch and someday I will get that refund for the Girl Scout cookies I prepaid for).
Rudy proceeded to spend a half-hour with each of us in our cubes to learn our jobs and talk to us about our interests and career plans, which was unusual. He also was a proponent of us getting hired on instead of being temps, and got us hired on. Later, after we’d both moved on inside the company, he recruited me to a team he was starting because he remembered me and the things I did.
(We were merged with another group, and they had a huge ticket backlog, and I burned most of a summer to try to catch it up, working 8 AM to 10 PM 5 days a week and then usually a day on a weekend, at a time I was an hourly employee, and he not only signed off on my checks, but most Fridays when he left around 7, he’d stop by and give me a signed voucher for car service, so I didn’t need to worry about public transportation home.)
About then, went to bat for me later to keep me some benefits: I was hired on the Citicorp side, so at the five year mark I had 15 days of vacation, and then they tried to unify it with the Solomon Smith Barney side, which meant that they wanted us to basically lose a week, and he fought to let me keep it.
He also fought for me when I had a depression breakdown, to the point he drove to my apartment to ask me what was going on, and helped get me treatment.
When he had to let me go, we were both very upset, but that depression incident and its side effects on my record apparently were why I was chosen in a massive layoff in 2010.
We keep in touch and he still is willing to respond to people asking for references, so I guess that’s good.
posted by mephron at 12:58 PM on November 11, 2020 [4 favorites]
Here's my best coworkers ever story.
I was hired by a large arts organization in the fall, and took over their social media. Every Halloween they had had a Ghost Tour through their old and atmospheric (and ghost laden) building, which about 30-50 people attended. They asked me could I please put it on social media. I asked about their goals and they said "as many people as possible."
I did my networking thing and it got picked up by the people I hoped would pick it up. I went to sleep.
When I woke up, we had 2,300 Facebook RSVPs to our event. I had been in the job 3 weeks at this point. By the time I got to my office we were over 3,000. I was waiting for my boss to come in and I mentioned it to my coworker and that I was pretty sure I was going to be fired. I barely knew people on my team at this point.
He walked through the building and talked to the rest of my team (marketing) and the team we were supporting in this particular effort (the school).
On Halloween we had 1,800 people show up. We had 10 trained staff working 9pm-midnight to take groups of 20 through the building for the tour. We had extra security. We had activities while people waited for their turn. And we had a concert playing the whole time.
Classical musicians and their administrative supports are the best.
posted by warriorqueen at 1:31 PM on November 11, 2020 [9 favorites]
I was hired by a large arts organization in the fall, and took over their social media. Every Halloween they had had a Ghost Tour through their old and atmospheric (and ghost laden) building, which about 30-50 people attended. They asked me could I please put it on social media. I asked about their goals and they said "as many people as possible."
I did my networking thing and it got picked up by the people I hoped would pick it up. I went to sleep.
When I woke up, we had 2,300 Facebook RSVPs to our event. I had been in the job 3 weeks at this point. By the time I got to my office we were over 3,000. I was waiting for my boss to come in and I mentioned it to my coworker and that I was pretty sure I was going to be fired. I barely knew people on my team at this point.
He walked through the building and talked to the rest of my team (marketing) and the team we were supporting in this particular effort (the school).
On Halloween we had 1,800 people show up. We had 10 trained staff working 9pm-midnight to take groups of 20 through the building for the tour. We had extra security. We had activities while people waited for their turn. And we had a concert playing the whole time.
Classical musicians and their administrative supports are the best.
posted by warriorqueen at 1:31 PM on November 11, 2020 [9 favorites]
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posted by Admiral Viceroy at 12:34 PM on November 10, 2020 [34 favorites]