Being a Team, Even in the Tough Times

Our company culture is really a ’simple’ thing, provided everything is running smoothly. As long as a company is growing and the sole issue is welcoming new employees, the only real complaint is usually just that there isn’t enough time to train them. Of course, we all work hard, and are always under time pressure, and suddenly this project is more important than the one we all slaved over the week before, but hey; our company is a “Great Place to Work“.
But even at SMA, life isn’t always just a bowl of cherries. A colleague was recently surprised to find out she had cancer. In light of the situation, my colleagues showed just how great they really are. For example, we had made a tradition of eating lunch together once a week, and there’s no way we could let our cancer-stricken colleague miss out now. So, we ate in the conference room and beamed her in from her own kitchen table via web cam, microphone and projector, allowing us to continue eating as a whole team and exchange stories as always.

The colleques write many greeting cards.

Gift Baskets Filled to the Brim

In addition, before starting chemotherapy, you have to gain weight like there’s no tomorrow. So we thought we would start a little program in the department: everyone was invited to bring there favorite snack, vitamins, healthy teas, or calorie bombs together with a greeting card for our sick colleague. We were shocked to see one box after another fill to the brim by the last day. When we delivered the boxes to her, she was very touched and overjoyed by the gesture. All the cards had a place of honor in her kitchen during her illness.
Now, she has made it though her second round of chemo and without all those calories we collected and gave her, I’m sure it would have been more difficult. And it’s wonderful to know that I have the best colleagues on earth, even though the tough times.