Over the years, while working for some (certainly not all) of the companies in which I’ve plied my HR trade, I enjoyed the luxury of being serviced by a plant technician.
These people, some of whom handled the same customers for YEARS, would make weekly visits to our headquarters office, visit each department, and nurture the plants. They would water, fertilize, clip dead leaves, rotate towards the sun/away from the sun, move to a cooler and shadow-filled corner as required. They would replace the stand or containers as necessary and occasionally whisk a plant away to re-pot. Or, barring that, replace the plant entirely.
This was a good thing for the plants entrusted to my care)some of them almost tree size!) because, quite frankly, I was inept at any semblance of plant maintenance. One day a technician chided me:
Tech: “Miss Robin – did you just water this plant this morning?”
Me: Well. Sort of. I poured some old coffee in there. Isn’t coffee good for it? My grandma swore by putting coffee grounds in the potting soil.
Tech: “Please don’t do that anymore. Let me take care of it when I’m here.”
The beauty of this whole scenario was, of course, that plants would survive while ostensibly “in my care.” I got quite used to it and, due to my lack of a green thumb, made sure to enjoy the lush calming effect of greenery while in the office since, as one can imagine, there is not a single living plant in my house.
But with the decline of “in-office” workers, here is yet another industry impacted. Also seeing a decline in business, I’m sure, are the coffee service folks who would come each week and fill up our supply, swap out pots, swipe down the burners (with burnt on spills), and replace faulty air pods. Or the first-aid and safety service crews that would show up every few weeks to re-up the first aid kits around the building and replace mats. And the bottled water delivery driver who would haul in and replace the 5-gallon jugs in the rented water dispensers.
All those service industries, withering away, just because employees don’t want to return to the office.
Maybe, rather than hyping up the “energy, collaboration, and connections happening” (per Spokesperson Rob Munoz of Amazon), the corporate folks could remind people about the benefits of working in a lush tropical jungle (with ease). Plants, after all, are said to boost morale and productivity while also reducing stress and fatigue.
Go green.
