Simple Things.....Simple Gifts

There is a certain self-imposed burden that one bears when starting and maintaining a blog such as this. It is the assumption that one must be "profound"....after all,  I am writing about serious stuff here. Then I remember my mother telling me not to take oneself seriously lest others don't..or something like that.
I have found that simply to start writing will "loosen" up the thoughts in my mind, allowing me to post something meaningful...to me, if not to anyone else.

I have been largely absent from the company for many weeks as I recovered from the surgeries. I never worried about the welfare of the business and its daily operations. Our people stepped up and met the demands of customers and production schedules in my abscence. That is what one would want, of course, but it happened, and it happened smoothly.

I must make it clear that the company does not sell a product. We don't make a line of devices or doo-dads and then sell them to customers. Sometimes I wish it were so. The reality, even though we ship trucks full of product, is that we sell our talents and capabilities. Our customers come to us with a need. We quote a price to fulfill that need. Sometimes we get the order and that is where what we do comes into play. But it isn't the turretpresses, the laser, the pressbrakes, the spotwelders, the arc welders and the powdercoating facilities that get the job done. Those are just the tools.

Today we gathered the employees together for a taco lunch...an informal affair, as most taco lunches are.
The tacos were "autentico" street tacos.....the kind I like. The kind that all the hip urbanite gringos are just now discovering on the taco trucks that are advertising on the social networks. It was the first time since returning that I had seen the "crew" in one place. Dressed in their work clothes, some wearing aprons, many wearing worn t-shirts with faded beer advertisements and witty, sometimes off-color, proclamations....all oil-stained to one degree or another....I thought they were a special group. Many have worked for ten, fifteen, twenty, and even thirty years or more for the company.

These men and women are the strength of the company. From the women in customer service, to the very talented men in the engineering and design department and to the men on the shop floor that fabricate the metal components and seal the cartons with made-at-Hamrock product.....these are the true assets of the company.

It was my great pleasure to announce to those people this afternoon that the company would restore the salary cuts made necessary by the recession.....necessary for the very survival of the company. My voice broke as I told them I knew it had hurt. The applause and cheers were the best thanks I could have asked for.

Nothing profound in this, it is a story about a simple thing. I thought it worth expressing my feelings about a group of fellow pilgrims.

There is a song..."Simple Gifts"... that I want to recommend to the readers of this blog.
Find it on youTube.....Yo Yo Ma and Allison Krause pair up for one of the best renditions.


SRH