| Prior Date | Back to Archive Index | Next Date |
|
WITandWISDOM(tm) - March 7, 2000 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: One's philosophy is not expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices we make. - Eleanor Roosevelt (Bettie) ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Forrest King couldn't believe the scene. Dozens of Federal Express employees were cheering as he and his wife stepped out of the chartered Boeing 747 airplane. King had come to Memphis with other Flying Tiger employees, whose company had recently been bought by Federal Express, to see if he wanted to relocate. The welcome, complete with a red carpet and a welcoming committee that included the mayor of Memphis and FedEx's CEO, was King's introduction to this unusual company. According to King: "It seems to me that when another company takes you over, they are not necessarily obligated to give you a job in the first place. But everyone - and it was communicated in a memo and later in video - was offered a job." CEO Fred Smith's "people first" management style can be summed up by one of FedEx's slogans: "People, Service, Profit," or P-S-P. "Take care of our people; they, in turn, will deliver the impeccable service demanded by our customers, who will reward us with the profitability necessary to secure our future." And FedEx does take care of its people. When the company's Zapmail program was shut down in 1986, all 1,300 of the employees who had worked in that department had first priority in internal job posting applications. Those employees who could not find positions with equivalent salaries could take lower-level jobs and retain their previous salary for up to 15 months, or until they found another higher-salary job. And when FedEx discontinued much of its service within Europe and reduced its European work force from 9,200 to 2,600, FedEx received praise from The London Times, among others, for the way in which it went about the layoffs. For example, FedEx put full-page ads in several newspapers urging other employers to hire former FedEx workers. In Belgium alone, 80 companies responded to the ad with a total of 600 job offers. FedEx people stick together in hard times. By Robert Levering, Milton Moskowitz and Michael Katz from Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work, Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Maida Rogerson, Martin Rutte & Tim Clauss (E-zine: CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL http://www.soupserver.com/ ) ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: MORE ADVICE FORM KIDS: "Medicine only works if it's cherry flavored." -- Elissa, 9 "Good food always comes with a toy." -- Ryan, 6 "Just because your dog drinks from the toilet, doesn't mean you should." -- Juaquim, 7 "If mommy says no, then you should ask daddy." -- Daniel, 7 "Don't pick your nose when you're finger-painting." --Xiang, 8 (E-zine: DIVERSIONS DIGEST http://www.worldstart.com/diversions.htm ) ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: "The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults." - Peter De Vries (E-zine: DIVERSIONS DIGEST http://www.worldstart.com/diversions.htm ) ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: A young boy complained to his father that most of the church hymns were boring and old-fashioned, with tiresome words that meant little to his generation. His father challenged him with these words: "If you think you can write better hymns, why don't you?" The boy accepted the challenge, went to his room, and wrote his first hymn. The year was 1690, and the young man was Isaac Watts. Among his 350 hymns are "Joy to the World," "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," "I Sing the Almighty Power of God," and many other classics. (E-zine: SERMON FODDER Mailto:Sermon_Fodder-subscribe@onelist.com) |