Emma Gets a real Job
It’s hard to keep this from being personal. I mean when it comes right down to it, this is a personal business. That last few days I have been getting nostalgic, and a bit sad. My daughter Emma, after six years of college has landed a real job in the local school system as a speech therapist, which means that she will no longer need her part time job here.
I don’t remember exactly when Emma started working here, but I do know that it didn’t get off to a great start. She needed summer work, and I thought I could find something for her to do here. Problem was, I really didn’t know what that something might be, and when it came right down to it, she really didn’t have any skills that we could use here. So, I put her to work cleaning, doing a little work on the books, and sometimes some oiling of furniture parts. Thing was, she really wasn’t much enjoying the jobs I found for her, and even sometimes refused to try particular tasks. At one point that first summer I awarded her with the “Worst Employee of Probst Furniture Ever”, which if you knew some of the employees I’ve had over the years, is pretty bad.
Funny thing is, we just hadn’t discovered Emma’s talents. We started working together on materials for our marketing, brochures, postcards, catalogs, and the like, and discovered that Emma was really quite good at this. She is artistic, writes well, and has a good sense of layout and composition. She designed two catalogs for me, and I don’t know how many times I have been asked as to who designed them, with the person asking being surprised that they weren’t done by a professional . At this point, she has done our catalogs, our new website, our newsletter, our blog, and several other smaller promotional pieces.
My getting sad though, has nothing to do with loosing Emma as an employee. There was a point when I realized that we worked pretty well together and that I valued and respected her input. I had a rare opportunity to work with my daughter as she grew from a child, to a talented, accomplished, adult, and it is something I will always treasure.
As a sort of postscript, it’s not like Emma is moving away. I mean she only lives like five minutes from here. The thing is, she just isn’t going to need this job anymore. Hopefully though, I will still be able to get her in here from time to time. The office may fall apart without her.
Emma for blog
Tags: creativity, family business, marketing, summer job, woodshop
She’s living five minutes away? Suck it up, people! Seriously, you are very lucky to have had this opportunity to work together. Good luck Emma on your new job. And, I think you need to add to your tags: “empty nesters”