I’m often asked how I am able to keep my staff turnover so low. While most of it is just dumb luck, some of it is that I am fortunate—blessed—to have found the right people to work in my office, and some of it is just simple math: I take care of my employees, and they take care of me and my patients. Simple, right?
One of the ways in which this concept manifests itself is that I take these guys on a trip about every 2 or 3 years. Somewhere fun, like NYC or Jamaica, or most recently, the Dominican Republic (or now that we’re on a first-name basis with it, the “DR”). We get there and have no formalized agenda, unless there is a show or restaurant which requires a reservation; just throw on your Speedo—okay, that’s a lie—and have fun. Simple, right?
But, it’s amazing the level of camaraderie and cohesion that develops just traipsing around Manhattan or a beach somewhere. The number of wisecracks and bon mots slowly rise to a fever pitch, until everyone is crying…from laughter, and that is something you can’t go back and share with anyone. You just have to be there—that’s where the magic lives.
With this bunch, mostly due to one to-remain-unnamed hygienist, we have to make a pyramid, which leads to another level of laughter and wisecracks, but somehow memorializes what we do and the fun we have together—and lends itself to a whole ‘nother philosophical treatise on the importance of support in team-building. The photograph above tells the tale.
Simple, right?