In a 1955 black Ford convertible with white leather interior, my mom began her long journey to transfer to the Southwestern Bell telephone company in Temple, Texas. My father, drafted during the Cuban Crisis in 1962, was training at Fort Hood, Texas. He was already living in Texas before my mom arrived. As the miles added up, my mom knew she had to stop and rest. She later shared with me that she was overtired and not trusting her driving safety. My mom asked a gas station owner in a rural Mississippi town if she could rest a while in her car. The kind elderly man proceeded on accomplishing his daily duties, gassing up cars, cleaning windshields, and checking on my mom.
After a couple of hours, my mom began the drive again to her new workplace, passing armadillos and other roadkill on the highway. At last, she arrived in Temple, Texas. As my mom opened her car door and proceeded to walk to the operation section of Southwestern Bell, her new manager stopped her and asked her a question. Ruby was required to ensure that all new employees had received the smallpox vaccine before they were allowed to enter the company and begin working.
With paper directions in hand, my mom went to the Temple health care center and received her smallpox vaccine that day. She then drove her ford convertible back to the Southwestern Bell company and met up with Ruby again. As they both exchanged pleasantries about the day and my mom’s travel, Ruby asked my mom, “where will you be living?” My mom said she would find a place that day and stay in her car if needed until she found a new residence.
Ruby smiled and proceeded to tell my tall, slender mom that there were no available living quarters for many miles around. Many people had moved to the area. Their spouses trained at Fort Hood because of the draft. Without hesitation, Ruby grabbed her purse in her office and found her house keys. She gave my mom directions and told her what room she would be staying in till she found adequate living quarters.
About four months later, my mom was able to find another place to live in Temple, Texas. Ruby was known for her kindness and was a great manager to work for in the telephone company. For many years, Ruby was known to my family as Aunty Ruby. She was a very wealthy woman who gave a lot of her wealth away to her church or those in need. Her family had also been in the oil company business and had made sizable profits. If you had met Ruby, you would not realize her wealth because she lived a very modest life.
Although this story happened almost sixty years ago, it brings out the question—“How can employers and employees bring about loyalty, trust, and engagement with each other?” It’s a two-way street, in which employees and employers’ benefit when they value each other. One of the best ways of bringing about employee and employer engagement is taking the time to get to know each other and hiring a professional expert who knows how to build teams and improve internal engagements with each other. Everyone wins when they try to improve the employee and employer relationship.