“Be grateful for those colleagues who make your day a little bit brighter”

The sole purpose of Essex & Suffolk Water is to provide clean, safe, tasty water to its customers.??But a company, any business, would be nothing without its people.

It’s also your colleagues who make a job more than a job. I’ve been lucky in my career to work with some amazingly talented people, some of whom will be friends for life.?

Because people are what make communities; and work is another type of community. Most people spend at least eight hours a day at work, five days a week; meaning that many of us spend more time with our colleagues than we do our own families. The work community is also what makes some jobs more difficult to walk away from than others.??

What has always struck me about Essex & Suffolk Water, is the number of colleagues who have decades worth of service under their belt. Who joined fresh from school or university and stayed. They may move around the company, as different opportunities present themselves, but they stay, part of the community.??

Community is an important part of Essex & Suffolk Water and maybe part of the reason why we spend so much time investing in the communities we serve.??

We deliver a company-wide corporate volunteering programme called Just an Hour, that allows colleagues to give work time to charities and local organisations who need help, such as food banks, schools, animal charities and so on.??

Last year, across the entire Northumbrian Water Group of which Essex & Suffolk Water is a part, a whopping 1,870 colleagues volunteered for Just an Hour, supporting over 700 organisations in our local communities – completing 2,731 volunteering activities along the way and smashing the company’s previous record.??

And we’re aiming to go above and beyond in 2025.??

We are thrilled to announce we will be supporting two charity sculpture trails this summer; Waddle-on-Sea in Essex and Hop to It in Suffolk!?

Waddle-on-Sea sees the return of the Havens Hospices trail in Southend-on-Sea, where we will have our very own penguin sculpture.??

The Hop to It trail for St Elizabeth Hospice , traditionally only runs in Ipswich which isn’t in our supply area, however, excitingly this year they have launched satellite trails in both Lowestoft and Beccles! We are working with three local schools in these areas, giving children the chance to decorate their own mini-hare, called a leveret.??

We are very proud to sponsor the trails as sadly, some of our colleagues have first-hand experience of the incredible work carried out by these amazing hospices, who rely heavily on donations and fundraising.??

We’re hoping we can raise awareness of the importance of preserving our water supply, by highlighting to customers the importance of saving water in our day-to-day activities.??

Being aware of our water consumption is critically important and smart metering is an easy way for our customers to monitor this in their own homes, to save money and consider our own environmental impact. We want visitors to both trails to learn more about that so we can work together as a community to save water and help one another.??

Please, follow our journey with both trails, here on LinkedIn (other social media sites are available) and support the journey, the trails and the charities.??

(Oh, and if this article has made you grateful for those colleagues who make your day a little bit brighter, maybe pop the kettle on and make them a cuppa to say thanks. It’s often the small gestures that make the biggest impact.)