BED BUGS & BABIES….. AND WHAT THEY TAUGHT ME

Now, you may think from the subject that I have some kind of consumer awareness message about keeping babies safe from bed bugs.  In reality, they are two entirely separate topics.   In our nine months of being in business we’ve celebrated a lot of milestones along the way – our “first” this and our “first that.”    It’s just in the last two weeks we had some unusual occurrences.   The bed bugs were an issue two weeks ago when a few of us from C360 were in Washington for client meetings and for some roundtable discussions we were hosting for nonprofits.   One of our colleagues checked into the hotel mid afternoon, was tipped off there may be a bed bug issue, and sure enough, found li’l unwanted friends.  We placed a panicky call back to the office for staff to find new rooms for us as we wandered around DC towing our suitcases and awaiting word of where we’d be resting our heads that night.

Then this past Friday, one of our colleagues, who was expecting her second child (but not until the end of the month), was in an internal meeting when her water broke.  Again the staff had to spring into action to locate her husband, whose calls were going right to voice mail and texts unanswered.   Some panicky moments for all, but eventually he surfaced, whisked his wife to the hospital where she gave birth about five hours later (mom and baby girl are just fine).   Aside from unusual events like bed bugs and new babies that don’t happen often, the one-two punch caused me to take a step back.

We’re a relatively small group of people (14 of us here in NY), but what’s nice is the closeness we all feel for each other, the banding together, the vesting we all have in everyone’s success, the offers to help if a colleague seems to be drowning in work.  I can’t help but find the correlation between a happy staff and happy clients.   Companies that have collegial employees will also find that the employees care about their work, their end product and the clients they serve.   I’d say C360 is fortunate to have such an amazing group and we’re all proud to be honorary aunts and uncles to our newest member who came into the world on Friday.