THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510040145
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
What's so special about the employee of the month at Robbie's Home Center?
Because, you knucklehead, it's Louise Capps.
My friend, who knows and admires Louise, had no patience with my questions. She showed me a page out of the company newsletter, praising Louise.
Ed Roesser's comments about her caught my eye.
``You can find her just about anywhere in the store, cleaning, polishing and waxing, and she does it all with a smile and a positive attitude,'' Roesser, Robbie's president, wrote. ``She is very well liked among our staff, and the customers are glad she's here.''
It was the positive attitude that got me interested.
Louise works three days a week, eight hours each day, at Robbie's. But judging from her enthusiasm for the store, you'd never guess she is a part-time worker who mostly cleans up.
``I have a lot of fun at work,'' she says. ``You can make it hard or you can make it fun.''
For her, fun is getting to work ahead of her 7:30 a.m. start time and putting on a pot of coffee because ``it's nice for people to come in and have the pot of hot coffee waiting.''
I say amen to that.
Feeling needed makes her happy, and she feels needed by the folks at Robbie's as well as by the four women whose houses she cleans on the days she's not at the hardware store.
``The most important thing is being needed and being appreciated,'' she told me. ``I like to be needed. And if I didn't have a job, I'd go all to pieces. You know, you aren't happy when you're idle and when you're lonesome.''
A 56-year-old widow with two grown sons who live elsewhere, Louise is a Dover, Ohio, native who came here because her brother lives in Chesapeake. Over the years, she's held a variety of jobs, mostly in food stores, until she found Robbie's almost five years ago.
She lives in an apartment nearby, which enables her to go home and walk her dog, Little Butch, at lunch time.
``I have a good neighbor who takes care of the dog when I'm not able to get there,'' she said.
Some of her housecleaning jobs take her to Deep Creek and Dock Landing.
Some of her clients are getting along in years, and Louise especially likes to ``help them.''
``It makes people feel good to have someone there. It makes my day and theirs, too.''
But happy as Louise is with her multiple jobs, that's not all she does.
``I have been teaching Sunday school and children's church for eight years now,'' and she is affiliated with the Churchland Assembly of God on Twin Pines Road.
She works with little kids, most recently 5- and 6-year-olds. Last year the church gave her a pin and a cup that read, ``I love Sunday School.'' The kids set her creative juices flowing, and she's always making items for them out of paper plates or discarded items.
And, she likes to memorize poems and can recite long passages from memory.
This year is turning out to be a most unusual one for Louise.
On Nov. 5, she will leave on her first plane trip, a flight to California. It'll also be her first visit to the West Coast.
She's going with a friend from church to visit the friend's aunt, who will be celebrating her 94th birthday.
``I met the aunt when she was here, and she invited me to come to see her,'' Louise said. ``I really do look forward to the plane ride.''
With a $50 gift certificate she was awarded as Robbie's Employee of the Month, she also made her first visit to Amory's restaurant in Churchland, taking two friends along to share.
``I never dreamed I'd win anything like that,'' she said.
But after spending 30 minutes in the upbeat company of Louise, I understand why she won.
``If you can't have fun on the job, where can you have fun?'' she asked me.
Of course, I agreed, because my job is pure pleasure most of the time. And I agreed, too, with Louise's assessment of human interaction.
``You treat them right and they'll treat you right,'' she said. ``And the good Lord will handle the rest.''
That simultaneous faith in God and in human nature is enough to convince me of Louise's virtues.
Most of all, I like her acceptance of cleaning as a good job.
I hope Louise's story will inspire others who think you have to be president of the company to enjoy working. by CNB