I was sitting in a waiting room at the hospital and got to chatting with people. There were four and myself.

One guy says how his work gives him so much hassle when he has these appointments. The way he describes it almost sounds like bullying.

One lady talked about how her work demoted her, which she kind af understood as she was away a LOT, for treatments etc. But told her at the end of the “heavy stuff” that her position was not available to her and if she wanted to stay, she had to accept that.

One lady talked about how she couldn’t handle the pressure of trying to keep up and went to them, only to have them encourage her to quit.

And the last lady walked in to her job (that she had been at for 6 years), to let her employer know her diagnosis and treatment plan, to be met with walking papers and severance pay. They felt that her battle would drop the morale of the whole team. Was walked out.

The final lady in the discussion told her story of how she was diagnosed just 7 weeks after starting her job. How her work stepped up for her and stood by her every step of her journey, that has turned out to be so much longer and dire than anticipated. She talked about the support, the morale boosts and how this world needs way more employers like hers because without them, she would not be able to survive. She told them about how her boss is so completely understanding. She talked about her coworkers that all banded together for her. She talked about how her work mates are family to her. When they hurt, I hurt.

That final lady was me. And I thought, rather than just share my pride and gratitude with strangers, I should share it with both of you.

I cannot express enough, my gratitude for your patience in my crazy ass medical life.

This is a long weekend, and I want you both to know that when I sit down with my family and we go around the table and say what we are thankful for, my turn will mention you and Tippet.

I hope that your weekend is filled with love and abilities to make amazing memories with those you call family.

Much love and gratitude.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Jori Enberg, International Import Coordinator here at T-R, has kindly given us permission to share the above email, which she recently sent to our President & CEO, Brenda Naylor and to our Calgary GM, Brenda Bressler.

A lot of companies talk the talk about investing in people and providing good work / life balance, but the Management team here at T-R really does walk the walk. Since T-R was founded, way back in 1927, supporting the local community has always been a priority. And that must always begin with our team members.

The moral of this story? Invest in your people.