October is the month for our annual United Way campaign where I work. We reached 78% participation. How? By giving us two months of casual dress. That means that for the rest of the year, I can go to work looking just a little better than I do when I first get up in the morning! I save five or six minutes I usually spend getting all gussied up! It means nothing has to match! I’m in heaven.
I have had a relationship with United Way for many years, payroll deduction-wise. I have a collection of United Way pens in my desk drawer at work along with some United Way beer cozies, and a United Way squeeze ball.
My first introduction to the United Way campaign was in the Army. They knew how to do it right and they got 100% participation. First they marched us into a room and told us to SIT DOWN and SHUT UP! Already it was a nice break from our regular routine. Then the United Way representative stepped up and talked to us so nice and friendly. No one had talked to us like that in weeks. When he finished, we were jerked back to reality.
“EVERYBODY STAND UP!”
You had a choice. Get in this line and fill out the payroll deduction form, take the rest of the day off and have a nice weekend. Or, get in that line and get a white rag to tie to the end of your bed so they can wake you up at 4am for some knuckle-dragging kitchen duty that would last well into the evening and leave you feeling like you’ve been par boiled until you’re begging to die. You call that a choice? People pushed each other out of the way to get into the first line while rag man stood alone with his unwanted rags. That’s how to get what you want!
Whatever works is fair, I say. There’s nothing like a day off in the sunshine in your favorite crappy clothes.
