Share the Love With Your Employees This Labor Day
Growing up, I always thought it was strange that we take a day off from work to celebrate work. Did you ever think that too? Here is what Wikipedia says about Labor or Labour Day, in case you need a refresher of its meaning or origination: “Labor Day in the United States of America is a public holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September. It honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the development, growth, endurance, strength, security, prosperity, productivity, laws, sustainability, persistence, structure, and well-being of the country. It is the Monday of the long weekend known as Labor Day Weekend. It is recognized as a federal holiday. Beginning in the late 19th century, as the trade union and labor movements grew, trade unionists proposed that a day be set aside to celebrate labor. "Labor Day" was promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, which organized the first parade in New York City. In 1887, Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday. By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty states in the United States officially celebrated Labor Day.[1] Canada's Labour Day is also celebrated on the first Monday of September. More than 80 countries celebrate International Workers' Day on May 1 – the ancient European holiday of May Day. (May Day was chosen by the Second Internationale of socialist and communist parties to commemorate the Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago on May 4, 1886.[2][3]) Lastly, several countries have chosen neither date for their Labour Day.”
IT Service Delivery & The Celebration of Labor Day
So, what does Labor/Labour Day have to do with IT Service Delivery? As you may know, SDB-Consulting's passion is to improve the Quality of Work-Life for as many Managed Service Provider Employees as we can. As a result, we celebrate the Labor/Labour of the Technicians, Service Coordinators, Service Managers, Project Managers, Operations Managers, and all the other roles it takes to have a well-run Service Delivery operation, including the Owners. This Labor/Labour Day, I’m focusing more on how to continue improving that Quality of Work-Life. I am grateful that we indirectly serve as many Customers’ Customers as we do. I am also grateful for, and will be celebrating, all the excellent technical delivery and superior service that our Customers provide their Customers. On this day, we will be toasting the great work our Customer’s Employees turn in, day after day. We encourage you, on this Holiday weekend, to take time and reflect on the great work those who report to you do. Take a moment to communicate to them how much you appreciate them and the work they do. Remember to please refrain from being generic and saying things like, “Thanks for the great work you do.” Instead, be specific in expressing your appreciation. Be thoughtful...be authentic...and bring meaning into your expression of gratitude.
Here are some examples of how to provide a specific “Thank You” to your employees:
Cassidy, thank you for being with SDB-Consulting for two years, and for managing the recent hiring application process with very little assistance from me.
Cristina, thank you for continuing to be creative in finding more outlets for our articles, and for the recent competitive website analysis, including suggested improvements to our website.
Jen, thank you for testing and building our Autotask Live Report mockup library. Again, this week, we were able to deliver (to one of our Customers) a Managed Service profitability report based on hours with a few minutes of additional work – THANKS to YOU.
Kathrine, thank you for building a great SBuyze.com website, one that receives compliments regularly. And a special thank you for helping out a friend in need, by designing a new logo for his company.
Rachel, thank you for your editorial comments, especially in the area of taking blah writing and giving it life, such as characterizing an engine as a 1971 Dodge 426 Hemi, and for the Rumpelstiltskin’s Pot of Gold.
Melanie, thank you for your awesome proofreading of each article. While the work you do remains hidden (or I would have fixed the mistakes myself), it does not go unnoticed that we receive very few comments of typos.
Gisele, thank you for providing data in our test and demonstration Autotask database. Hitting the volume of new and completed tickets, along with time entries, goes a long way in making the rest of the teams’ (Duncan, Jen, Linnea, and myself) jobs easier, and for that - we applaud you.
Duncan, while I know we have our technology challenges, I thank you for hanging in there and managing most of our Live Report delivery. I especially thank you for the mockup library and rolling out the Advanced New Customer onboarding reports, when needed.
Linnea, thank you for nine months of data generation, initial New Customer onboarding reports, and most recently, taking on building the Technician dashboards and Service Coordinator dashboards for our Customers.
Miriam, thank you for managing me, my outlook, the various to-do lists, and especially the prayers for the Company, individual Team members, and myself. Specifically, I would like to thank you for taking on the QuickBooks bookkeeping and wrestling the issues to the ground.
Successful Candidate, thank you for going through the application process. I look forward to meeting you next week, and I thank you for your future work for our Customers and our Customers’ Customers. Please note, when you join us, you will be the smartest person on the team, as the rest of us have been assimilated to think alike.
Thank you for reading this article, allowing me to share examples, and double-dip by thanking my own Team. Enjoy your Holiday, but please do take time to thank your team and show them your appreciation.