Despite the doom and gloom in the newspaper industry, we’ve still managed to retain a few perks at work. A decent fitness center with lunch-hour yoga and spinning classes. A locker room with only slightly icky showers. Subsidized parking.

And through it all, there’s been Emily, who came in once every two weeks to pamper us with back and shoulder massages. She’d set up her massage table in an empty conference room, dim the lights and was open for business. $17 bought us 15 minutes of bliss. An escape from the stress of work. Respite for arms and shoulders abused by hours everyday pounding on a keyboard. The greedy ones amongst us (yes, me) sometimes booked two sessions. 

But now Emily’s gone.   

Emily’s departure wasn’t the result of corporate downsizing. She simply found another gig - doing massages at a chiropractor’s near her home in River Falls. For her, it was a (much) shorter commute and sure-fire business, unlike the sometime unpredictable appointments at the Star Tribune. 

And Kay and I are bereft.

For Emily wasn’t just a pair of magic hands. She was a fount of knowledge and a source of ideas for this blog.

There was her water birth post. Her lesson on bedtime affirmations (It works!).

“What will we do without Emily?” Kay wailed. “She’s our sage.”

Emily, we already miss you.

What are your perks at work? What would you like to have? What have you lost in these grim times?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.