Shopping Local: Blrerblblbblblbblelblblblbl!

When I lived in Sacramento, I had a great temp agency that placed me in various temporary/part time jobs. My very favorite company I worked for was Ultra Glass...a very solid, customer service-focused window and glass company that was all about, well...happiness. Laughter! The best service ever for their customers and clients. It was a complete and total fit for someone like me. Yes, we all worked, and worked hard. But we also knew how to play and play hard. Ultra Glass had the formula down pat: Keep your customers and clients happy, yes...but also keep your employees happy, because they're the ones who interact with those customers and clients, and will recommend and refer more.

How did they do that?

I'm reminded of a 1970 Christmas classic, "Scrooge"...a musical based upon Dicken's A Christmas Carol. Ultra Glass definitely had the spirit of "Mr. Fezziwig"

The scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgPlz67L-LI

Ultra Glass would buy VIP passes for all their employees to Sacramento Kings games (driven to the stadium, in a limo!)...would celebrate every holiday with a barbecue or potluck...would make every employee feel like a VIP, every day! If you did your job and did it well, you were rewarded. But even if you didn't, you were still made to feel important and encouraged to rise up to the standard. Everyone was given a chance to succeed...rarely did anyone fail because of that.

To me, Ultra Glass is the ultimate example of strong, small business power in America.

Okay, so I have to explain my subject line: Blrerblblbblblbblelblblblbl!

While at Ultra Glass, we'd all be working away...and every once in a while, we'd gaze outside and see a flock of turkeys moseying on by. Sometimes they'd come up and peck at the windows...other times they'd be doing...(um, er)...other things. But we'd all, at the very least, get a laugh out of it.

Sometimes (because we were in an industrial cul-de-sac)...we'd have stupid idiots spinning donuts around and around...the sound and smell of peeling tire treads made us stare and shake our heads.

But in that same cul-de-sac, Ultra Glass also had the local fire department out for fire safety and extinguisher training.

Sometimes they had to deal with mail being delivered to the wrong address...and they'd always communicate, positively and professsionally...with our local delivery services. The USPS, UPS, FedEx...

Sometimes Ultra Glass had to deal with employees not showing up for work...and they'd call my awesome temp agency, asking for more qualified candidates.

Once, my purse was stolen in the parking lot of a chain grocery store down the street (very well known as a crime area in North Highlands). Ultra Glass gave me the day to file a police report, cancel my cards, spend literally hours at the DMV for a new DL. Not only that...they'd call me to ask if I was okay, if I needed anything...

I live in a rural town, right smack in the middle of Wyoming. I am happy to say that I work for a great company, American Medical Response (formerly Guardian EMS), that (so far) understands what it means to serve a local, rural community. Emergency, critical care services should never be taken lightly or taken advantage of, but...sometimes I wonder if folks really understand just what our EMTs and Paramedics go through on a daily basis.

I do. I get the same great feeling here at AMR as I did with Ultra Glass. We're all connected, we're all important, and we need to be able to feel free to laugh, cry, vent, etc. Basically, be human.

Because when it comes down to it, ALL of our lives should always matter in a small town, in a big city, in a "red OR blue" State of the Union. There will always be "issues"...but most especially, there will always be times when we need to shed the political elements and concentrate on the "big family" factor. That we are all "in this" together...

Because, turkey babble aside...how we succeed as a community depends on how we treat each other. How important we make each other feel. How compassionate and understanding we are.

How we recognize those who make a difference in the human experience.

VIP seats at a Sacramento Kings basketball game...courtesy Ultra Glass of Sacramento.