At one time or another each of us has pondered the question of whether we have influenced, impressed upon or changed the life of someone else. Have we created a legacy. I believe it is important that all of us feel that at some point in our life we helped to create a positive change in someone elses.


For the past 34 years I got up every day and went to work at the same company. I was not alone in this ritual. I worked in a company where longevity was the norm, the average tenure 21 years. But recently this company like so many others had to look at the cost of doing business and decided that in order to reduce administrative cost it was necessary to reduce the workforce. To put this into context I must state that there had been changes in our business as a result of the down turn in the economy. My company is a part of a lagging indicator industry meaning, when people loose there jobs in January our company experiences the affects in April or May. So the reduction in workforce was warranted based on declines in our customer base. The company decided that the initial reduction in workforce would be voluntary. Which speaks volumes about how they felt about us. Many companies had already taken the very draconian step of simply "letting people go". But what my company did was establish a defined criteria such as age and years of service and if you met the criteria you would qualify for "the package". While I will not go into details of the offering I will tell you that it was fair and attractive and put the decision rights regarding our future in our own hands.


Almost 800 folks qualified and for 45 days we reviewed, agonized, flip flopped and finally either opted into the offering or opted out. Some 500 plus folks opted in, of which I was one. Let me put this into perspective - represented in this total was over 100 centuries of experience, that is 10,000 years. If you started today and backtracked through 10,000 years of history it would take you to the B.C. period. This should make you go hmmm. Hmmmm because there are a couple ways this timeline can be viewed - first, one could say we really were dinosaurs; the second, one could summize that this was a lot of experience walking out the door. Personally I think it was a mix of both. We had some clunkers among us, you know folks that should have been gone years ago but kept showing up everyday and we let them stay. And then you have those folks that over the years expended the effort to become expert in their field and developed a strong understanding of processes applied throughout the company. The latter group will be missed, for a time, and then that too will pass.


As I counted down to the last day of my employment in a company where great friendships were formed, partnerships developed and successes experienced I started to question if I really had made a difference in the company and in the lives of the folks I worked with, worked for, and managed. Had I created a legacy. Today, I along with many many others got our answers to these questions. YES we did make a difference. How do we know, because people told us.

Today, the day of my retirement, was one of the best days of my life. Today people told me and many of my fellow retirees that we did make a difference in their lives. Some influences were easily recognized and other actions, seemingly insignificant at the time, were more important than I ever could have imagined. For instance, there was an associate that had lost a son to a senseless act of violence. When she returned to work it was a challenge for her to get through each day. One day during this time our team was in a meeting and a film clip being shown triggered memories of her son. While I did not know exactly what was going on at the time I sensed a complete change in her demeanor. I walked over and just leaned in and whispered in her ear asking if everything was okay, did she need to step out and then I gave her the slightest hug. She told me today that action, which to me was just a mere courtesy, meant the world to her and made it easier for her to come to work. I listened as folks told stories one after another of how one soon to be retiree had helped them earn a promotion, encouraged them to take on a challenge or in some cases just told them to get their act together so they could continue to provide for their family. I cannot fully express how good this made me and my fellow retirees feel.

So, as we took our walk down the glorious blue mile with our heads high and our backs straight feeling proud of all we had accomplished; with our co-workers, peers and staff cheering for us, clapping for us and wishing us well we felt good. We felt loved. We felt honored.

As we turned at the door to take our final look it was clear we had created a legacy.

Thank you for giving us a very special day and letting us know we did make a difference.

Land of Broken Toys

How do we fix our broken children. How do we add back the missing ingredients like remorse, accountability and respect to the values that help mold us as children and guide us as adults. I watch a news story on television as they discuss how a group of kids beat a young high school student to death. The reason? No reason. They beat him with two by fours, kicked him and stomped him. Why? Because they could. Because no one tried to stop them. Because other kids stood by, some cheering them on, and watched, and shot videos. Thankfully one witness thought enough to give a copy to the police and as a result most if not all of the assailants have been captured. Now what are the next steps. My first inclination; strap them down and beat them to death. But that is the anger and emotion speaking and makes me no better than the thugs that perpertrated this crime. What I would like to see is justice. I would like to see these "tough guys" stand trial and hear a jury pronounce them guilty and hear a judge sentence them to death, not life without parole but death; perhaps by lethal injection so they can feel the coldness of the lethal mix of drugs coursing through their veins as they know this is their end.

written 10/4/2009