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LIQUI MOLY Managing Director Ernst Prost, in this memo to his staff, speaks on why social issues are important, especially in times of social distancing, and what advantages an empty desk offers.
Dear Liqui Moly / Meguin family!
“Your products suck and your advertising is really shitty.”
Howard Stern, is that you? Could be him. Or the “hidden camera” team. But it’s not – just another anonymous internet troll …
Happens from time to time – a few in every thousand … I then politely write back that we can meet on the web for an exchange of views, to debate with facts and figures if necessary. Usually, there’s no reply.
I much prefer the praising and appreciative posts, but of course also the objectively critical messages. I read and answer every single letter. It is gratifying to communicate with our customers.
At present, we receive hundreds of letters of a positive nature every day. Some people are surprised to get an answer, especially from me in person, and not just sometime later, but on the same day, often even within the hour … Seems to have gone out of fashion – such a working style.
Sometimes being old-fashioned is not sooo bad … being respectful, polite and friendly is always in fashion! Grandma always said, “A stitch in time saves nine; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today” – and that’s how I work.
Everything that comes in gets processed right away: Mail by mail, letter by letter, call by call. Nothing is put off and nothing is done later, when I have more time. Because I don’t know what else I’ll have to do later. I’m a clean-desk person. At the end of the day, my desk must be clear … After that, I can still think and be creative … Who knows, tomorrow a much bigger bow wave may be added to the already existing wave of unfinished business … And then?
“What you have, you keep,” as the Swabian saying goes. At this point, it’s not about money, it’s about “done”. And because Swabian is such a beautiful dialect, you can also use it very humorously. For example, when social dancing on the table – or social table dancing :-). Actually, it is a physical distance that we are currently expected to maintain, and not a social one. On the contrary, closeness and warmth are now in demand. It is the social side of us humans, the humane side in a way.
We are not all ruthless egoists crammed together in a large herd, but rather quite tolerable individuals who usually have a heart for other individuals. This is shown very well in the social behavior of individuals (or not) …
So please let us remain social, because the opposite of social is asocial or even antisocial. Let us show that we have our hearts in the right place, that we are there for our fellow human beings and know what has to be done.
Respect for the other person begins with the prompt answering of questions, and also with the immediate reaction to criticism.
Here too, “in a jiffy” is better than ASAP …
“Due to work overload, we are only now able to answer your mail of 8 January” – no, it was not a government authority that wrote this to me at the end of April, but a respected German company.
How can I take someone seriously or believe that they care about something when they take 20 days to respond to a letter? They don’t even seem to think it is unusual. It’s normal for them.
A 10-minute job is put off for three weeks … So this virus is not to blame for everything … I, on the other hand, find it difficult to sleep when even a single e-mail – no matter what it’s about – is still haunting my mind unanswered and thus gnawing at my social conscience and my honor as a managing director.
There are things that you simply don’t do, and there are things that you simply have to do immediately. Sometimes this is just a question of upbringing and, in our case, is also an enormously important part of our corporate culture.
So please, let us stay as we are: Speedy, thorough, polite, friendly and the way we want others to deal with us …
To end off, here’s a heretical question on ministerial mask airlifts: Is every airplane from China with masks or similar “high-tech products” on board that were ordered too late and overpaid going to be welcomed live upon landing by a publicity-needy second-grade politician and a crowd of journalists?
Without protective masks, and with a physical distance of only 30 cm …
A fine issued to our Minister of Defense for violating regulations – now that would be something …
Or care packages, including chewing gum dropped by our American friends via airlift over Berlin.
Well, I hope that this time, the masks are more suitable than those that Andy Scheuer, our good Minister of Transport, received on the tarmac in Munich the other day, with tears in his eyes for the running cameras …
Yours,
Ernst Prost
Managing Director.
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