A Band of Brothers

I love working for a small company. I have done consulting work in the past for some of the largest companies in the world. One thing that is readily apparent when dealing with large companies is that the company seems to think it owns your life. That's not true in a small company.

While we are not large enough to offer some of the great benefits packages some large companies do; the benefits of working with only seven other people far outweigh what we give up.

I work for a small manufacturing company. We serve a very niche market; making hand tools for underground electrical cable preparation. For those of you who know what underground primary cable looks like - you understand the need for specialized tools. For those of you who don't; well, I'll just say that you need specialized tools to prepare it.

We only have eight people in our entire company. We have our casting, machining, etc. done by outside suppliers, but everything else is done in house. All tool assembly, calibration, repair, marketing, order processing, etc. are handled by the eight of us.

Everyone must be a jack-of-many-trades for a small company to work efficiently. Not to brag, but I am the only one of the eight that can do any task in the company. I spend most of my time providing customer and technical support over the phone while processing orders and purchases and overseeing inventory. I can also head to the shop and build any tool in our line when we are in a pinch. I travel periodically to handle trade shows, teach lineman's schools or travel with our manufacturer's reps to visit customers.

We're small so we all have to team up in order to do it all. Being in a small company keeps life interesting.

Perhaps the best part of having only eight people is that we are all guys. We used to have a woman working here. Donna worked at Speed Systems for over twenty years and was part of the family. We all mourned when she ultimately lost her fight with cancer. Donna kind of served as buffer for us. She would roll her eyes and give us a motherly, "Tsk, tsk," when our joking around reached the imaginary line that all mothers seem to have but no guy actually understands.

We have hired two additional people since Donna died; both guys.

While we don't have a policy on hiring only guys, it has made the place a little more interesting. It's actually much better this way. For one thing; there are no distractions. I have worked with attractive young women before and one thing is certain; no one seems to get as much work done when they are around. It has nothing to do with ogling or anything inappropriate - it's just a fact of the office. With all guys, we also don't have a motherly conscience admonishing us when we make fun of each other. No, we're more like a small band of brothers than a totally disparate group of eight men thrown together for work.

We know each other. We know each others' wives and kids. We empathize with each other when kids are sick, wives are crabby (never mine, of course!) or life issues seem to interfere with life itself.

Of course, we all also know exactly what buttons to push with each other.

Rarely does a day go by when the conversation around the table at break or lunch doesn't include at least a bit of sarcasm; usually directed at one or more of the others. The group becomes like a school of hungry sharks circling a wounded animal as soon as the "fun" gets started. The faintest hint of blood in the water is all it takes to get everyone fired up and joining in the fray.

Of course, everyone enjoys dishing it out. The beauty of this band of brothers, though, is that we all recognize that you have to be willing to take it if you want to give it. So we give and we take. We all pile on when the blood hits the water, but we all gather around when there is a need.

Most of all, though, we truly care about each other.

I grew up with three sisters, but I have seven brothers now.