There was once a factory in a far away land . The factory owner Fred took immense pride in his factory .
This was no normal place to work , the employees had to fold napkins at the same time as caring for an elderly person . This care involved mainly talking to the elderly person and making the person happy through conversation – this was an intrinsic part of their work – but I’d like you remember that the employee also had to fold napkins .
Suki was an employee at the factory , she was an amazing napkin folder and the top napkin folder at the factory . The factory owner raved on and on about how good Suki was at her job – he promoted her and used her as a role model of efficiency whenever he went to other napkin folding factories . Suki felt very proud and kept working hard .
One day Suki’s chair broke – so she had to move to another area whilst it was fixed . Suki sat next to Giles who was also a napkin folder – Giles wasn’t very productive but he did attain adequate levels of napkin folding to keep himself in employment . Suki noticed amazing things about Giles he was working but also chatting away to his allocated elderly person quite a lot , the elderly person was called Gertrude . Suki noticed that Gertrude looked very happy and Suki suddenly realised that all the years at the napkin folding factory her own allocated elderly person had never laughed like Gertrude .
The next day Suki went to see Fred the factory manager and told him about Giles & Gertrude . “I think we should watch Giles” Suki said . Fred the factory owner went to see Giles and immediately noticed how joyful he was in his work – Suki was happy but Giles had that extra ‘je ne sais quoi’ . The factory owner also checked all the records of all the elderly people that Giles had sat with whilst he folded napkins . A wonderful thing had come to light not only had no one complained but there were letters of thanks from families of the elderly people stating how kind Giles had been and recommendations for his promotion .
The next day Fred the factory owner made an announcement to all the people at the factory
“All of us within this factory should give a higher priority to making each elderly person happy over and above folding napkins. In this wonderful life we are simply spreading kindness , compassion and the human spirit . Look at Giles and Getrude and the happiness they emit and share . ”
Over the next few months the factory workers tried their best each day to give their priority to each of their allocated elderly people. A remarkable thing started to happen – productivity increased and surprise,y more napkins were folded than ever before but also the workers felt more valued and much happier about being at work – plus much more than that the physical and mental health of the elderly people involved took a significant improvement – because in the end we are on earth to be human .
I hope you enjoy my fable .
Thank you for reading
❤️Jenny❤️
@JennyTheM©️ 