The Little Package, The Big Message

Growing a company is expensive. Every dime we make goes back into growing E Squared. I don't take a salary. To cover my monthly expenses I works part time at FedEx. Everytime I hear someone whine about having a long day, I chuckle. My day starts at 2am so that I can start work at 3am. The upside is that I am out of there and back to my E Squared desk by 10 every morning. I make $18 an hour and have heathcare benefits and I rarely have trouble falling asleep at night. Plus I never need to go to the gym to stay in shape.

There are only a couple people out of a staff of 150 who do what I do. When a package comes to me it's because the scanners and the computer system can't figure out where to send it. There are 8 different things that can be wrong that must be corrected so a little thinking is required. There are 50 different codes for our frequent shippers and 40 different zip code identifiers that must be committed to memory. However the most important skill is reading. Is the address on the label correct? Is it a box that's outbound? Is the bar code legible? Since we may process up to 1,000 boxes in a morning, I do a lot of reading.

Processing each box quickly is imperative. We understand that there are people who depend on us to do our job well. While we send things that are important to those who recieve it, nothing is more important than when we help send love.

If you have not sent a Harry and David item, you can put a message on your package. It is printed on the label on the top left hand corner of the label.

It was late August when a very small package from Harry and David came to me to be processed. In looking over the box I noticed the message. It said "We are so proud of you. We know you will do well in college. Love Mom & Dad"

There are few things that are as important as words of encouragement. The role of all of us who work with kids is to find what makes them special, what their gift is and to offer words of encouragement...often.

You see it's the little things, the things that sometimes come in small packages that can have the greatest impact.