From the Editor's Desk

By Sarah Hann

From the Writer’s Notebook (This one is, quite literally, from my notebook )

Sometimes as a reporter (or, for me at least), you get ready to ask a question or bring up a new topic and while you don’t know the exact answer you’ll get, you know it’s going somewhere good

Such was the case the Monday our team went to Rollhouse and in chatting with Rainie, Tabby and Nikki I asked about the importance of team building and team bonding (given that Rollhouse hosts such events and spoiler alert, will have future discounts coming for Chamber members) With the family emphasis already established, I knew good things would come from this question

Great things came We talked about empathy, understanding our co-workers, even relating to them, and considering the “why” behind their ‘workplace selves’ as I included in my article Bottom line: our employees and co-workers are more than just a name on an ID card, desk plate, door sign, or spread sheet, so we should get to know them as such

I’ve been fortunate to only work for employers and team leaders who express care toward their employees, so it brought me great joy to hear such things from the Rollhouse leadership. People have, will, and I imagine will continue to quit jobs because they don’t feel a sense of care from those around or above them at work.

I would imagine we all care about our co-workers and our employees, but do we know them? Have we ever had a coffee chat with them? Do we even know if they like coffee? The things we can learn about a person in just the length of enjoying a hot beverage can fill in the details about them and answer that “why”. And that “why” can make worlds of difference in understanding each other in the workplace and truly being a family or family-like environment

Showing you care should be the priceless employee benefit, but we can take it another step, too With the Chamber benefits cook-out event coming up, here’s a thought: have that coffee/tea/cocoa chat and ask your employees about the benefits they’d like to see, and even ask about their goals which may reveal additional benefit ideas Write down those ideas and requests Then, join the Chamber team at Courtyard Marriott on August 10 and bring those ideas along so that you can pointed to the right folks who specialize in those benefits

For as complex as leadership books can make it seem, at the end of the day (or the last page of the book, maybe?) it comes down to understanding and caring