Marvin Windows and Doors is a family-owned company that made it through the recession without laying anyone off.
And recently, they gave their employees – all of them – their first profit-sharing checks in four years. Each one of their 2,573 employees got a check for $311.
Marvin Windows and Doors valued their employees over profits.
They did it by cutting back hours for hourly workers, did away with some perks, cut salaried employee salaries including top executives and even family members. They made these moves to break even until things got better.
And all this wasn’t done to just be nice guys. They saw it as giving Marvin Windows and Doors a competitive advantage allowing them to keep experienced workers as competitors were getting rid of theirs.
This is a feel good story and in a time of venture capital, greedy Wall Street and a changing world economy, it is heartening to remember that taking the road less traveled renews our faith in businesses that put people first.
“It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose your own” – Harry S. Truman
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