I was sitting in a client’s office a few weeks back when my client offered me some coffee. We went to the kitchen and there was the most beautiful coffee machine I have ever seen. I made the yummiest, most foamy cup of coffee out of this work of art, and the angels sang.
As I ooh’ed and ahh’ed over this cup of magic, there were 2 other employees in the room. I gushed to them: “Are you just in heaven every morning with this coffee machine?” And one of them replied, “Oh no. I drink coffee out of an old pot,” she announced proudly. The other woman nodded and beamed at me. I looked at her like she had grown a third head and said, “What?? WHY?”. Her answer shocked me: “The CFO makes our coffee every morning out of a pot in his office.”
Several years ago, in their old building, the finance department was in the basement, far away from the kitchen. So, the CFO who came in really early, would make the coffee every morning. The habit stuck.
She continued her story with, “He goes to Target once a week to buy a small bag of this coffee. I don’t know why he doesn’t just buy a big bag.” (“Because it gets stale faster”, the CFO informed me.)
Each of these women have worked for this CFO for 5 and 6 years respectively, and neither has any plans of ever leaving.
Maybe it is the love that goes into each cup of coffee – something a fancy machine can never do.
POWER THOUGHT: The best part of waking up is going to a job where you feel valued and cared for.