A Cab Ride I'll Never Forget
Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. One night I took a fare at 2:30 AM, when I arrived to collect, the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once. But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself. So I walked to the door and knocked. 'Just a minute', answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. By ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by Terry
- Oct 1, 2016
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A Bank That Pays-It-Forward
You think everyone would have something they dislike about their job - with the notable exception of the people at State Bank and Trust in Fargo, N.D., CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports. "What do you hate about this company?" Hartman asked some workers. One said: "I haven't found anything yet." Another: "No, this is a good place to work? "What do I hate about management? They're just too nice!" One worker said. Another worker said, "They care about their employees." The conclusion: Take this job and love it! Another worker's reaction to Hartman's question, what do you hate about working here, was: "I have to go home." State Bank chief operating officer Michael Solberg said, "That's our mission statement: happy employees, happy customer." What, is this McDonalds? To accomplish the company's mission, Solberg says the bank gives a year-end bonus of about 5 percent of salary. They contribute 15 percent of salary to the 401-K, and do a full ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by Terry
- Aug 6, 2008
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Folded Napkins For Stevie
I try not to be biased, but I had my doubts about hiring Stevie. His placement counselor assured me that he would be a good, reliable busboy. But I had never had a mentally handicapped employee and wasn't sure I wanted one. I wasn't sure how my customers would react to Stevie. He was short, a little dumpy with the smooth facial features and thick-tongued speech of Downs Syndrome. I wasn't worried about most of my trucker customers because truckers don't generally care who buses tables as long as the meatloaf platter is good and the pies are homemade. The four-wheeler drivers were the ones who concerned me; the mouthy college kids traveling to school; the yuppie snobs who secretly polish their silverware with their napkins for fear of catching some dreaded "truck stop germ" the pairs of white-shirted business men on expense accounts who think every truck stop waitress wants to ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by Terry
- Nov 16, 2008
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