2nd Source Veteran
New York,#2UPDATE Employee
Wed, August 06, 2008
If you worked in the NYC office within the last 3 years then you'd know full well the lengths of Sam Chanin's generosities. You'd also know that he helped build more lives than any can ever attest to him decimating. He treated his reps and employees like family. If you were here within the last three years then you very probably ate dinner at his house. If you were here for three years then you probably participated in the company wide raffles that he put on just to get everyone excited, just to see them happy. If you're doing the same thing you were doing here elsewhere, you probably now know how the attention Sam Chanin gave his employees and his reps is very uncommon among business owners. If you were here within the last three years try thinking back to some of the people who started when you started. Think of their quality of life before they joined this company and compare it to when they left. Their standard of living changed, their taste changed, what they demanded of themselves changed. If you just think of how many young people started up their careers here. How many people realized their own talents while working under Sam. He invested in his reps/employee's potential and many of them grew into what he believed they were. He burned a 22 year old with cancer. I'm sure. The same guy who hired a grief counselor for the office after the untimely death of one of our popular young sales reps and employed him afterward as our own in-house therapist? Who paid for bi-weekly happy hours just to see everyone smiling. Who routinely gave out of his own pocket to help employees and reps in rough patches. Right in front of me he gave to an entry-level employee and single mother to keep her from losing their apartment, an employee he barely even knew. This guy who made monthly, in some periods weekly, raffles giving away thousands of dollars worth of gifts at a time to employees and reps alike just for the simple task of coming in on time. Or maybe you didn't. Maybe you weren't one of the many admin level employees or new sales reps who ate his own dinner table. Maybe you didn't participate in any of the raffles, or didn't win. Maybe you never had the need to vent to the unbiased and warm-hearted company provided therapist. Maybe after a long and exhausting week of work you never drank a sip at the almost weekly company covered happy hours or ate at expense paid dinners he gave to the reps. Maybe you never had to accept an advance to cover a dry spell in your sales. Maybe you never accepted one of the innumerable generous offerings Sam Chanin took upon himself to offer to those working for him. If after working so closely with a guy like that and never being able to appreciate it, I'd be bitter too.