I have been thinking of one of our employees

This week, seemed so full, that I felt as though I needed to remind everyone,
that while we seem busy with our customers and our families and there is always
a rush to get everything done--that needs to get done, that we need to remember
that there are others out there, who are not doing well and who, through no fault of
there own, continue to experience pain in their lives, for a multitude of reasons.

I am thinking that we all have our troubles, our issues and our problems to work out,
but I have been thinking of one of our employees, and the fact that his wife is very ill.
It is not just that this family has two young children, and that his wife is battling a terrible
disease, but I just wanted to give a little credit to the man who has to not only deal with
work, children, and a household, but also has to manage to take care of his wife.

If you ask me, and no one really has....that this man is going through quite a bit, and I wanted
to give him some kudo's for being so strong and for being able to do all he needs to do, for his
family and for us at work. I have to confess, that I am not sure if I were that man, I would
be as strong and even keeled as he has been, given what he is going through, daily.

I can only imagine his pain and admire his perserverence, and I find it difficult to be able
to know where he gets his strength, but I want to pay an anonymous tribute to him and give
thanks that he is on our team. You get to find out a lot about people when they go through
tuff times; like how they handle adversity, or if they take it out on others, as so many of us seem to do.

I am just not sure, how he does it, but I want the world to know how proud of him I am and that
just thinking of what he is going through makes me realize how lucky we are to have him a part of our extended family, at Box Brothers.

If nothing else, this man shows us how to live life, and we should all take note, as bad things happen to good people all the time, it seems, and I have to admit, how we react to them makes all the difference in how we really live life.

While this post may seem a bit distant to the subject of boxes, packaging and shipping, I am of the belief that we all need to be reminded of how important some things are and how we tend
to focus on less important matters, all the time. Traffic, errands, policies, procedures, and stuff like that.

I do not often ask people to pray for others, especially for those who we might not even know, but I am hopeful that we can all learn from the pain of others and be better people for it. To the extent that we can foster than kind of attitude here at Box Brothers, I feel that anything is possible, even a complete recovery for our employee's wife. Lets employ the power of positive
thinking and then we can all get to be much better place.

Staring at the calendar today

I was staring at the calendar today and for whatever reason, it dawned on me that we are only
11 months away from the new year of 2012........how is that for a dose of reality.

Who does not miss the holidays, when hope sprang eternal......I mean, for a few weeks, everyone felt that the shopping momentum put the long hard past of the recession, behind us.
I do not know how anyone else looks at it, but there is some weakness in our economy and since our business is linked to housing, home sales, and remodels, we are not seeing the normal volume of people we would see if the economy were functioning on all cylinders. http://www.boxbros.com/estate-asset-distribution

I read a story about someone in Las Vegas who was in the group they call the "99'ers" who have
exhausted all of their extended unemployment benefits and who face losing their homes, and
all of their possessions. It is so sad to read a story like that, but to me, it is even worse when
the leaders of this country say the worst is over. It might be, but for this man that I read about,
how can we celebrate when we see this reality. How can politicians waste so much tax money
and not help these people. I do not get it.
http://www.boxbros.com/senior-moves
I guess it is about the image they want us to see, as maybe all of this has more to do with peoples' feelings and attitudes, than it has to do with the man who was facing the loss of all he had. I know some people are still scared, and I think this is because the banks are not lending and they do not show a willingness to do so, at least not yet.

I just wish we had the ability to solve this mess, so that we could all just have an easier time feeding our families, paying the rent or mortgage and having a decent time now and then.
Like I said, bring on the holiday, we have only about 328 days to Christmas Eve, 2011. http://http//www.boxbros.com/shipping

HAPPY 25TH. ANNIVERSARY from Daniel Schwartz

HAPPY 25TH. ANNIVERSARY! I am not very good at doing blogs but I have been with the company for 10 years now,and I have seen many changes,both good and some not so good. I have seen many employees come and go also! Thank You Goody and Mark for giving me the job and for keeping me through good years and the last few years,which have been tough for both Box Brothers and the employees, including myself. I hope to see Box Brothers still around in 25 more years! by : Daniel Schwartz

Box Brothers Supports Independent Music

As the new Regional Manager of the Box Brothers Northern California operations, http://www.boxbros.com/oakland-california I was excited about being able to bring my style of management to our crew here. However, at the same time I received my promotion I also was offered an opportunity to join a touring band from San Francisco, Slow Trucks. I had always taken pride in my ability to juggle my professional life with my desire to play live music, but this opportunity raised a huge conflict with my work schedule, and I was facing a major life decision – do I work or do I play?
Our first big tour, four weeks of shows throughout the South and Northwest, would require me to leave my position for an entire month. I knew this timing was terrible – this would give me only a couple of months to establish my leadership and gain a lasting rapport with our employees. I knew that performing the full aspect of my duties would now be impossible, and it would not be fair to the company to take such a long leave of absence.
With no small amount of regrets, I contacted Mark Frydman to tell him about the situation, and to offer what I thought was my only recourse, the resignation of my newly acquired position. I was preparing for the worst, the loss of a good job in a poor economy, and the prospect of touring with little to no capital. Imagine my surprise when Mark stopped me in my tracks and told me he thought we could work this out.
I came to find out that I wasn’t the only Box Brothers employee who had expressed the desire to pursue a music career. Mark was gracious enough to allow me a leave of absence for the duration of our tour. I still faced the problem of having no income other than what the band was able to create for itself through merchandise sales and payouts for gigs. This doesn’t go very far when your gas tank costs $100 to fill, and that is an almost daily occurrence!
As the tour dates approached, Mark and I worked together to set me in place as Regional Manager, and to prepare our two locations for my absence. I had agreed to still handle as much of my work as I could from the road – basically keeping up to date with my emails from my iPhone and keeping in contact with the shops to make sure there were no major snags in Operations. We also made arrangements to have Vice President Chris Long pay a couple of visits to smooth out the transition into my leave.
I recall a phone call from Mark the Friday before I was to leave on tour. He said that he may have some good news for me. The next week, two days before I was to leave, Mark informed me that Box Brothers would be willing to still grant me half of my salary if I could perform some of my duties from the road. This was a life saver. I no longer had to worry about keeping enough money for rent in my account, and I would be able to tour in comfort, rent a hotel room here and there, and have the financial freedom to enjoy the trip.
This kind of flexibility and kindness to their employees is what makes Box Brothers such a great company to work for. I began to realize what Mark had been telling me all along. Box Brothers isn’t merely a company, it’s a family. We look out for each other here. In this company, there is no Mr. Frydman. It’s Mark to us AND to our clients. How refreshing to have a boss that doesn’t want to be called “Boss.”
The traits of flexibility and camaraderie aren’t reserved exclusively for the employees here, but also translate to how we do business with our customers. Box Brothers is always willing to handle a last minute job, to stay flexible with our clients, and to build a friendly rapport with them that outlasts a single job. We know most of our repeat clients by their first name, and a phone call with them consists not only of business at hand, but also a friendly chat. Box Brothers is truly a people-first organization, and I am proud to part of it.
If you’d like to hear more about my band and our upcoming tour dates, please visit http://www.myspace.com/slowtrucksbandband We may be coming to a town near you!
-Bill Carter, Regional Manager, Box Brothers Northern California