25 Years at Bigelow Tea!

I have a quick story to tell from a couple of weeks ago…I had just come back to the office after two days on the road for business.  The weather in New York did everything but cooperate.  What should have been a one day turn around trip to visit an account but it turned out to be a 36 hour extravaganza!  Hours stuck on the tarmac only to have my return flight cancelled before I even landed from my flight out!  The visit was super but the transportation side of the trip was a nightmare.  Getting home was impossible…delays, long lines, cancelled flights.  After another 4 hour delay (yes I was sitting on the plane), they pulled us all off for mechanical reasons.  At that point I cried “uncle,” I knew it was best for me to spend one more night away, so I woke up at the crack of dawn and took an early flight home so I could get into the office at a decent hour.

Starting at 7 am before I even boarded my flight to come back home, I was getting phone calls asking me when I was going to be in the office. When I landed the phone continued to ring with the same question.  I said to myself “geez, tough group, I barely landed back in the area and everyone is all over me!”  Needless to say, I drove home, put on some fresh clothes and headed into the office.  Upon my arrival, one of my teammates jumped out into the lobby and asked me into his office.  Once again I thought “these guys are brutal…no rest for the weary.”  After loading some rather large business issue on my shoulders, I looked at him and clearly explained this was not the proper venue to address such an issue.  He then asked if we could grab a quick bite before our upcoming meeting.  I agreed and off we headed to grab a sandwich in our cafeteria upstairs.

As I was walking into our cafeteria, I could see through the window in the door that ALL of our employees were in there (not at all how the shifts work for lunch breaks) and they had a video on me.  I stopped and almost refused to go in thinking they had made a terrible mistake.  They were obviously celebrating something for me but I had nothing that needed to be celebrated. With that, my associate pushed me through the door and I received the most beautiful round of applause, smiles and cheers.  It was my 25^th year with the company, and I had completely forgotten it!

The room was decorated with balloons, we had two HUGE cakes and I had the most spectacular time.  Just to see the look in each of their eyes when I finally got up to speak and tell them thank you for all they have done to make my 25 years so outstanding.  I am the lucky one…they each made me feel so loved.  One at a time almost each employee came up to me to share stories of a moment we had together and gave me a hug.

I cannot even try to share with you how I felt.  Exhausted but elated…shocked but loved.  It was so wonderful.  What made it even that much more special was how much they caught me off guard.  I was so surprised, I was completely speechless, not to mention welling up with emotion.  25 years at Bigelow Tea…that is pretty darn special!

Cindi Bigelow