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© Deepwater Horizon Response
Without mentioning it to them in advance, an employee of one local recently decided to spend his summer vacation days volunteering as part of the clean up and response effort for the Gulf oil spill.
Because the business is part of the oil and natural gas industry, this employee's decision to have a volunteer experience focused on this particular issue created some controversy in management meetings. Was the employee making a political statement? People would associate his actions with the company image…
It took them a few days, but company management eventually came to their senses and realized that there wasn't a downside to this. They called the employee into the CEO's office and had a press conference where the company told him how proud they were of the decision; then they double his vacation day so he could actually spend a month (instead of just two week) with the project. They also came up with a print flyer to distribute in town. That raised a few dollars for the employee to have some pocket money and it created a lot of good PR for the company.
The moral of the story? Don't underestimate the value of cheap flyers printing. And support your employees when they decide to take part in service projects – it's good for business.
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