I want to start this week's column with a reader-participation experiment.
What do you need to do?
Simple.
Think of a meat.
What came to mind? A steak? A big, juicy hamburger? Maybe a pork chop? A delicious piece of fried chicken?
If you worked at the Deseret News and heard me ask that question, chances are you would think of bacon.
That's because, among my co-workers, I'm known as something of a bacon aficionado.
I didn't intend to curry this image, mind you. (Mmmm, curry.)
It started more than a year ago when I was the assignment editor for the Deseret News. As part of my job, I sent an e-mail to my fellow editors and reporters every night listing the stories we planned to run in the next day's paper.
The list alone seemed a bit boring, so I started adding jokes to the beginning. I ran a few "complete-the-limerick" contests. And then, one fateful day, I attached to the list a picture that included bacon.
From that moment, I stuck with the bacon theme. Every day, I sent out a picture of bacon shoes or bacon hats, or included a bacon-related story or joke, or shared a photo of some wonderful- or disgusting-looking bacony food item.
Before long, I didn't have to look for things to send. My colleagues provided links to bacon websites. They took pictures of bacon dishes they ate during their vacations and sent them to me from their phones. Even their family members, hearing of my obsession, would send them items that were then forwarded to me.
It was amazing. Every night, I would send my list. I would hear the chimes throughout the newsroom as people received my e-mail. And then I would hear the chuckles or groans as they viewed the latest entry in my personal, pork-based parade of pictures.
That's great, you may be saying, but what does it have to do with business?
Only this.
I don't have any formal management training. I started my career as a reporter because I liked to write for newspapers, and I became a manager pretty much by accident, as many editors do.
But, as a manager, I have found that my job is much easier when the people with whom I work are happy. And sometimes, it doesn't take large raises or glitzy perks to raise morale.
Many people — me included — are motivated by small gestures: a supervisor asking a sincere question about a person's family; bonding as a team by playing hooky for a couple of hours to attend a movie matinee; a boss urging a hardworking employee to leave a couple of hours early on Friday.
Maybe even silly pictures of bacon lip balm or bacon-flavored toothpicks help people leave the office with smiles on their faces.
And that's a good thing. Times are tough. Jobs are hard to find. Economic uncertainty and the fear of layoffs keep people up nights.
When up against such challenges, the little things help us keep plugging along.
So this is my tip of the hat to small, sincere, morale-building gestures in the workplace.
And here's to bacon. Long may it fry!
Send personal finance comments or questions to gkratz@desnews.com or to the Deseret News, P.O. Box 1257, Salt Lake City, UT 84110.