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This week's Thank You: The door closer


I have a reminder that goes off each Monday at 8:30am. The reminder says "Write a Thank You Note".

I work in a large building, housing several hundred employees during our peak rush season. A large portion of the building is our warehouse, with conveyor belts whirring and totes strolling their merry way to the shipping stations.

Within this large building, I work in an open configuration of desks and cubes in a fairly quiet area. Fairly quiet, that is, when the door to the room is closed. That door maintains the balance between concentration-enhancing white noise and a cacophony of heavy steps on concrete, snippets of conversation and the buzz of machinery.

Maybe because my desk is closest to that door, or perhaps because I have the concentration of a gnat while I'm procrastinating, but my productivity drops to sloth-like levels when the door is left open by unaware (or less distraction-prone) co-workers. Many times have I looked at the door left ajar, willing it telepathically to swing closed and glaring at it when it obstinately ignores me. Which is so much easier, though much less effective, than getting up, going around the low cubicle wall that marks my work territory, and closing it.

 On several recent occasions, a co-worker whose desk is on the far side of this open workspace -- nowhere near the reluctant-to-close door -- has noticed the offending position of said door on her way past and closed it. It may be her Type A tendencies or some latent OCD that persuaded her to do these small acts of kindness. Unless she can read minds, I doubt she had any idea the frustration the simple position of the door was causing me.

 I wanted to make sure she knew that I appreciated what to her was probably just a small act of order. She probably had no idea how much she calmed the fraying edges of my nerves.

 And that's why I wanted to thank her.
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Anonymous said…
What an inspiring commitment and personal habit! It reminds me of a favorite proverb: "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver."
May 19, 2015 at 7:38 AM
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