This beautiful basket was dropped off by one of our employees today.
I walked over to the farm the other day and passed by a few of our barns. In the two I passed there were employees – they waved. Someone was hauling manure and drove past and waved. When I got to the parlor I was greeted with smiles and nods. I realized how I take their kindness, courtesy and hard work for granted.
We are very fortunate that several of our employees have been with us long term – 15, 12, 10, years. Our success belongs to them too. In fact, due to them. We could never do this without our team.
I’ve heard other farmers complain for lack of good help. Crazy amounts of turnover. We did go through a spell of that ourselves but have landed on some great people.
I began to ponder how this has all come about. And, I think I might have a few reasons for our loyal employees and if you’re so inclined I’ll share them with you.
1. Treat everyone the way you want to be treated. Respectfully and kindly. We don’t put up with anything less and we practice what we preach.
2. We go out of our way to help if we can. We’ve given loans, found housing, helped with school, took care of kids and any other thing we could do.
3. We don’t ask anything from our guys that we won’t or don’t do ourselves. We work side by side many days.
4. As a Christian, we share our faith – by our daily activities. I have had a small library of Christian literature and DVDs for their kids. We post activities happening at our church. But it is never demanded that anyone follow us nor are they preached to. We think a relationship with Jesus Christ is of the utmost importance – but it is their choice. We try to share and show. We took kids to church with us for a time until they chose to attend a church of their choice.
5. I’ve taught some of the wives how to can tomatoes, bake pies, etc. In turn I’ve watched how to make Mexican rice and learned of some amazing home remedies.
6. We pray daily for our help. We pray health, protection and prosperity over each one.
7. I bring crock pots full of food, drop off pizzas, leave cookies and other baked goods.
8. We love on them as much as we can.
In turn we are greeted with smiles, waves and have treasures dropped off. Garden produce, specialty foods, are a few.
We are invited and attend birthday parties, anniversary parties, and quinceanera. We are honored to be included.
When out of town family visit, they stop by to introduce us to them. We love bragging to moms, sisters and whoever we can about their son or brother.
We are blessed tremendously and I just wanted to share and brag on our guys a bit.
I hope any of you who have employees that are reading this share in this joy and blessing. And, we all need to take a moment now and then and pay attention to the goodness we have.
