Interesting day today @ Stride, Inc. As I mentioned yesterday, we got a big shipment of pens from our friends at Schneider of Germany. Now, keep in mind, the head of our Shipping and Receiving Department came to us some 25 years ago as a developmentally disabled adult. His disability was a communication disorder, basically he didn't speak. Nada, zip. Communication is no longer a problem "huge" for this valued employee and we call him the head of shipping, but truth be told, he is the Shipping and Receiving Department.
With our big shipment help was acquired from the assembly tables, so our work crew lost our Production Assistant (incidentally another DD employ who is now a full-fledged staff member). So, when I came in today, our work crew was sitting around with nothing to do! Nothing is tougher on a boss or on the workers. Our special needs employees love to work but one has to find them work.
I spent a good part of my day getting the crew working and keeping them working. No sooner did I get them on a task then they would come to my office stating they were done and needed more work. Around three o'clock in the afternoon as I was creatively creating yet another project I warned them that I was out of ideas and if they needed something else before the end of the day we'd all go out front and pull weeds together!
So much for my plans for the day. Let me tell you, it's humbling when the boss has to do the job of a person with documented developmental disability and has trouble keeping up.
That is what I find is truly rewarding about working for Stride, Inc. We have people here the world views as "retarded." What I find is we have employees with special job skills and abilities that far exceed mine.
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