My wonderful co-workers

Sometimes I teach purchasing classes, and one of the things I have always taught is respect for our co-workers for whom we do our buying. Since we spend most of our waking hours with these people, actually more than with our families, it seems important to me to always try to get along with them.

Some of you know that I have a very difficult co-buyer who has hardly spoken to me the 4 and a half years I have worked at the company. I believe she intended someone else for the position but the Vice President at the time of my hiring was someone I had worked for before and he made the decision to bring me into the company. The legacy of this is that she has never warmed up to me and sarcasm towards me has been evident since day one. I don't work for her so most of the time I just ignore her and try to stay out of her way.

About a year ago, our boss changed the products we buy, giving her mine and giving me what she had been purchasing, and apparently didn't want to do any more. I was more chagrined than unhappy because to me buying is buying. What it did though was allow me more interface with the other employees of the company since instead of purchasing for production, I am purchasing what our other employees need to do their jobs, ie, computers, stationery, marketing stuff plus the materials for our other offices in Europe and India. I also place the orders for our sales and marketing departments when they do conventions and shows. These are orders for the hotels, booths, food, lighting, signs etc. I try to place the orders quickly because I do know that time is a big factor. If there is an error in the requisitions, instead of returning them to the sender, I call the person and immediately fix the errors so that the orders can be placed. Apparently this is something my co-buyer refused to do. She would just return the requisition out of the system with notes indicating what was wrong. This would delay the orders being placed. I have never done this to gain anything but more to make it easier for my co-workers to do their jobs in an expedient manner.

Doing, this, I have gained more than I have expected. Once I lost the weight, the marketing department conveniently sent over more than a few company shirts for me to wear. They have also provided me with the promotional items they purchase which I share with the other buyers including my nemesis (doesn't improve her behavour towards me but I can't share with the other buyers without giving to her too) and the people who work in our customer service department next door. When my computer failed, it was only a half hour before I had a brand new computer with all the bells and whistles. Even my boss commented on the speed of the service I was given. When something breaks in our building, everyone comes to me. They know that if I ask, something, including a new coffee pot this week, will appear quickly.

When I was in Iowa in June, I took my Ipod with me and somewhere (I am assuming running through airports) I lost it. When we had our company Christmas party last week, I mentioned to the other people at the table (I sat with sales and customer service, not purchasing) that I was really hoping I would win a new Ipod because there were three amongst the 20 gifts they were drawing employee names for. I didn't win one of the prizes (3 people at our table did win prizes - no Ipods) and the rest of us at the table celebrated their wins with them.

Yesterday purchasing passed out the gifts we were given by suppliers to the people on the line (we do that every year instead of taking the stuff home). When I returned to my desk, there was a Christmas wrapped gift on my desk with a card indicating the gift was from our sales and customer service department. When I opened the package, there was a brand new state of the art Ipod. I was overwhelmed. The card was signed by all the people in the departments. I was so touched, I cried. The past three weeks have really drained me and I must admit my holiday spirit since I returned from Georgia is the lowest it's been in years. I immediately went next door to personally thank everyone for being so kind and generous. Everyone commented that what I do for them both service wise and making sure I share what I have with them gave them no choice but to show how much they appreciated everything I do for them.

This must be the true spirit which I try to carry all year. It proves to me that doing unto others all year not December is what it's all about I am very grateful for the co-workers who do appreciate the service I provide and have proven to me what the word "SHARING" is all about.

I wish all of you a very happy holiday and most important a VERY HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR. I hope everything you wish for comes true and I thank you all for being my blog friends.