Appreciation

Everyone likes being appreciated, right? Well it depends. Mindy, the operations manager at my job, came up with the idea to have an appreciation party. It wasn’t anything fancy but to me it was the thought that was most important.

Mindy had a quick meeting with the department and team managers to decide what to have for the party. They ordered cakes, blew up balloons, printed certificates of appreciation and coupons for an hour off, and gathered various gifts for the employees.

When I arrived that Tuesday afternoon, the dayshift celebration had already taken place and it was nearing the time to set the room up for the night shift employees. A few of the workers were not enthusiastic about the cake, mixed nuts, mints and punch. For a last minute effort, I thought that the managers had done a good job. Now if you ask me, management did not have to spend their money on people for doing their job. They could have said, “Hey, you did your job. Your pay check is your reward.” If that had been said, many people would have felt slighted and, of course, would have had their lips poked out.

Every time I heard someone say, “Is this all the food we get?” I told them, “If you want, you can go pick up some hot wings for everyone.” They just looked at me like I was crazy and tried to get as far away from me as possible as if something was wrong with me.

It was like a graduation ceremony as each manager got up to thank their team before calling each employee up to receive their certificates. After handing out all of the certificates and gifts, the managers served the punch and other refreshments to us.
Mindy said, “We literally decided to do this yesterday, so there wasn’t a lot of planning time.” This was in response as to why so many different gifts were handed out. The tax examiners received stress balls or lanyards for their ID badges, the clerks got water bottles, and the leads and I received Bravo paraphernalia such as coffee cups, Post-it Note holders, and beverage coasters.

Lindsey, one of the leads, was nice enough to stand up and offer thanks to all of the managers for their part in helping us meet our goal, which was very happily received.
After the festivities were over, I helped the managers clean up the room and take down all of the decorations. Mindy took the themed balloons with “Congratulations” and “Well Done” on them and put them on a table in the middle of the work area. She was hoping that the balloons would bring a smile to the employees’ faces every time they looked at them. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the majority of the people rolled their eyes when they looked up at one of our tokens of appreciation.