By Tony Phillips
For the Salisbury Post
All of us are looking for ways to make it today. I don’t mean just at home but in the work place as well. It could be said that trying to think of ways to help the company you are working for is actually more productive than simply trying to figure out how to save a few dollars at home. If the company I work for does not succeed and hopefully gain momentum, then there will be no money left in my pocket to save.
The newspapers and television reports today speak all too often about how bad it is. They focus far too much on where we may end up if this bad economic situation continues. I pray that the people I work beside are not of that mind.
Let me explain what I mean by that. Suppose all of the people I work with were stranded on an island with no rescue in sight. Resources are drying up. It’s up to us to rescue ourselves or die there. In a case like this, I want to look around and see my co-workers designing sails and cutting trees for a raft. There should be people studying the currents to determine the safest and surest way out of this. There should be people organizing us to perform these tasks.
The last thing any of us needs on this island of despair is someone giving excuses or moaning about how bad the situation is or will be. What we need are people who are searching for materials to sew that sail, looking for good quality material to build that raft, studying the sky for signs of direction to navigate back into the world.
I plan to get off this island, and I plan to take along as many of the people I work with as possible. I plan to do this by looking for more ways to sell our product, more ways to save money, better use of time and materials.
Whose job is it anyway to do all of these things? It’s your job and everyone who works beside you, my friend. I do not accept being stranded on an island with anyone who is not eager to make sails, build rafts and plot safe courses.
Folks, this is not business as usual. We are all in dire straits and there is an immediate need for a sense of urgency from every single one of us. I encourage everyone who reads this message in a bottle to take a deep breath and go once more into your workplace with a renewed attitude ó an attitude of collective purpose to bring us back to the good times where laughter is appreciated and welcome.
But for now, let’s get down to the business of turning around our businesses. We have a good captain. It’s up to us to give him a ship he can sail.
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Tony Phillips lives in Landis and is employed at W.A. Brown & Son.