A supervisor helped Jane, a custodian and single mother facing homelessness, see her work's real value. He showed her the dictionary definition of custodian, then took her to see the students she cared for, comparing them to her own son. Jane cried, finally feeling valued.
I always go back to is the story of a custodian named Jane who was near homelessness before she got her job. She had a young son at home. She was a single mother. She kept saying to herself, why couldn't you have done something more with your life, Jane? Why are you just a janitor? She said that that was when there was one supervisor who did something really interesting. He took her into a break room. He noticed that she was struggling. He opened up a dictionary for her and had her read the definition of the word custodian. As a person responsible for a building and everyone in it. And then what he did is he brought her out into the hallway and he said, look at all these students in this dormitory that she was cleaning. And he said, just like your sons, like these are all someone's precious child and they're counting on you to make sure this place is clean. Um, and she said to me, she went into the break room and she broke down and started crying because it was the first time in her life that someone showed her that she was worthy.
Reducing Regrettable Attrition in Organizations by Fixing the System, Not the People Reducing Regret
