“Lockdown” meant different things to different people. Some have done very little, furloughed from their job with little but Netflix, Disney+ and Quarantini’s to get through. Whereas others haven’t changed at all. Their work has continued and they’ve been busier than normal if anything.
The latter is certainly true for our warehouse teams. They’ve not stopped throughout lockdown. Their gardens are not manicured and tended to like so many others; they’ve hardly even had chance to cut their grass! They’ve not had time to read new books or learn new skills and they’ve not become home-schooling champions as they’ve been in work 5, sometimes 6 days a week, just as they would have any other April & May.
I want to thank our Operations Team. Without them, more than 1000 people wouldn’t have such tidy gardens right now. More than 200 people wouldn’t be growing their own vegetables and more than 250 people wouldn’t be collecting rainwater off their roofs next time it rains and being able to put it to good use in their gardens.
Our operations team have really stepped up in the past month. We’ve seen a complete transformation in our business, with our least-sold group of products becoming our most-sold products, almost overnight. They had to adjust super quickly and find a way to keep up with hundreds of orders coming in each week, for individual compost bins, water butts and growing aids.
They’ve also had to find a way to be able to carry out all this work, whilst respecting and operating inline with the government guidelines and those set out by Public Health England, to make sure they are not endangering themselves or others. Keeping two metres apart from each other. Making it safe for delivery drivers to drop off and collect goods. Exchanging paperwork and goods in a safe and sanitised manner. Pile all that on top of a complete change to their normal workload and it could have been a recipe for disaster. But no, they’ve taken it in their stride and got on with it.
Whilst they’ve been inundated with this new work, their team members – the ones in sales, marketing & customer service, who have all been working from home – have been trying to add to the pressure by getting them more and more orders to keep up with! We’ve literally been trying to increase the size of this new challenge! Purposely trying to get more business, which will mean they have even more to do! You’re welcome Ops Team!😂 But our operations team are still smiling and still soaking up the pressure. Like water being sucked up by a thirsty sponge, they’re lapping up all the work we can find them and continuing to do a great job.
There’s no way we could achieve what we’ve achieved over the past month without operating as a team. That’s the key message here. Alone we could have done little of what we’ve done, but together we’ve achieved so much more. As people continue to flock to their gardens and take to them with secateurs and lawnmowers, they need compost bins to fill. They want planters to grow their own fruit and vegetables. They want water butts to collect any available rainwater to look after their newly manicured flower beds and lawns. At the end of this summer, the UK should enter an International ‘Open Gardens’ competition! Never before will we have seen so many well maintained gardens!
Teamwork matters and makes all the difference. If you’re part of a team, remember them today. Focus on what you can do to help your team and you’ll see the benefit, of that I’m certain.
