We have three basic job requirements here at Small Dog Electronics that go beyond doing extraordinary work. We ask each employee to write a weekly report outlining work accomplished, challenges encountered and any commentary they would like to make about their job. My techs tend to do daily reports which really give me a good handle on the work flow. The second job requirement is to reach the highest level of Apple sales training for even those not on the sales floor. My favorite is my third requirement, which is to take a paid day off and do community service.

The only requirement for that last one is to send me an email and tell me what they have done. It can be as simple as helping an elderly neighbor stack their firewood to designing a web site for a non-profit. I was sort of boasting about this idea one day at a meeting of some other business leaders and the CEO of Ben & Jerry’s listened patiently and then casually said “we do the same thing but we give our employees a week off”. Crawling quickly under the table, I decided that was something to aspire to.

Thank you so much for reading his issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

Don, Emily & Hadley