ever talk about your relationships or your job on a blog!
This seems to be the unwritten rule of blogging. In fact, it could be considered an actual (“literal”—to use an extremely overused and improperly used term) written rule, since there was a whole chapter dedicated to it in the blogging book I bought for my wife when she launched her blog. Apparently, many folks have gotten themselves into trouble by commenting on their public blogs about relationships with people they’re unhappy with or by discussing what has happened on their job.
I am now going to violate this rule. In fact, I’m feeling brazen today so I’ll violate it in both parts. Part 1: I love my wife. We’ve been married for almost a quarter of a century and I would not trade her for the world. But that’s not the purpose of this blog post. Part 2 (the actual purpose of this post): I am very proud of the firm I work for.
I am employed as a graphic designer / photographer / desktop publisher by Deloitte & Touche, the largest Tax and Audit firm in the world. I have been with Deloitte for eight years now and have learned to greatly appreciate its culture.
For the purposes of this blog post I will focus on only one area of the Deloitte culture—volunteer community involvement. Deloitte & Touche encourages its employees from the partner level all the way through the firm to the staff level (where I reside) to get involved in our own communities—providing pro bono services unique to our skills or simply providing a strong back or an analytic mind to help our local communities thrive and prosper. This is a serious commitment at Deloitte & Touche. It even enters our personal mentoring and coaching sessions, which at most companies focus only on how to get ahead at work and how to benefit the company. Deloitte puts its money where its mouth is, in a manner of speaking.
In celebration of the firm’s commitment to community involvement and to draw the attention of our employees to this initiative, Deloitte sponsors IMPACT Day once every year. On this day Deloitte essentially shuts down our offices world wide and sends the employees out into their communities in groups. They dress us in Deloitte IMPACT Day shirts so we will be easily recognized and we help out at rehabilitation centers for the elderly, Boys and Girls clubs, emergency service organizations, homeless shelters, business leader cooperative centers, and on and on the list goes. It is a wonderful day and our employees return thoroughly excited about what they’ve done and about how committed Deloitte is to benefiting society.
For the past two years I have been asked to photograph the Hub Event—a significant number of seminars and training sessions all centrally located in a large facility with many training rooms. Last year’s event was held in the Washington, D.C., Convention Center. This year’s event was in our new office just outside of D.C., in Rosslyn, Virginia. These events have held CPR training, computer literacy skills training, Emergency Preparedness coordination, help for the Capitol Area Food Bank, and many other laudable efforts. One large room each year holds myriad Deloitte employees around a huge table filled with custom card-making supplies. The Deloitte employees make hand-made cards that will be included in care packages built by another large group of Deloitte employees. We then send these care packages to high school students, wounded veterans, and others in need of encouragement.
Another room houses many Deloitte employees reading essay after essay for the Orphan Foundation of America. The winner of this essay will receive a full university scholarship to help them on their way as they leave the status of “ward of the state” and move into adulthood.
It is truly wonderful to see my fellow employees at Deloitte voluntarily making such a huge impact. And as the photographer I get to see more of it than most. And it swells my heart with pride that Deloitte & Touche does this.
Since this year began, I have posted a few times about the need to show “steadfast love and faithfulness.”
If you’re interested in reading any of those posts, here are a few: Discerning God’s Will | Biblical Success Manual | Sitting at the Feet of the Instructor | Whose Definition? | Biblical Success Manual II | Start With God. I should probably point out another aspect of Deloitte culture here: commitment to a diverse workplace. The afore-mentioned blogposts reflect my highly religious paradigm; Deloitte would not necessarily agree with everything I say in those posts. But they are committed to having folks of all different background, religious traditions, ethnicities, etc., working collaboratively for the mutual benefit of all of us. It’s a great culture and another thing I am proud of Deloitte for.
IMPACT Day is a tangible example of a large firm committing its resources to show steadfast love (kindness) and faithfulness (dependability) to society.
Kudos to you Deloitte & Touche. I’m proud to be part of this firm!
No comments:
Post a Comment
No personal attacks. No profanity.
Please keep your comments in good taste. Leave a name so we know who you are. Your comments are welcome, but anonymous flames and sacrilege will be deleted.