it's more than just a job

One of my greatest joys is building teams at work who function more like families; they care for each other on a personal level, discovering depths of commonality that were unanticipated, and building very satisfying job environments for every other team they touch.

There are many team members who have kept in touch over the years. They sometimes reach out through a quick instant message, an email, or a comment on my Facebook page. It’s a tremendous encouragement to me that the family link remains long after the day-to-day exposure ends.

Sometimes, when jobs are challenging, they still seek out an opportunity to vent, discover solutions, or talk about how they’ve solved issues. I do my best to encourage them to find ways to connect with the people they work with on very human terms. Some people don't want to share the human connection - but, in my experience, most people relish having a friend at work.

In a world filled with high-stress jobs, high unemployment, and ever increasing demands on our time, it’s sometimes very difficult to remember that the people we work with a humans too. Having a challenge at work? Try to share some personal time with someone and share in each other’s worlds… a cup of coffee can be a great excuse…