GSS Agent #00312 recently reported observing that a co-worker was struggling financially and could not participate in going out with other staff members for weekly Friday team-building lunches. Although GSS Agent #00312 did not have an especially close working relationship with this particular co-worker, she decided to make him her monthly “secret mission assignment” and bless him with a secret act of kindness. So, one Friday morning, GSS Agent #00312 came into the office early and secretly left $30.00 in an envelope on this co-worker’s desk with an anonymous note that read, “We would love for you to join us for lunch today, from God’s Secret Service Agent #00312.”
Later in the morning, GSS Agent #00312 clandestinely watched as her co-worker sat at his desk and cautiously opened the envelope. He looked around uneasily to see if he could figure out who might have left the envelop on his desk.
At first GSSA Agent #00312 was concerned that her co-worker would go around the office asking people if they had left the envelop on his desk and would find out by process of elimination that she had done the deed. However, she was pleasantly surprised that he didn’t do that. She guessed that her co-worker didn’t ask anyone because he might not have wanted to draw attention to his need and cause others in the office to talk about him and his situation.
Not surprisingly, GSS Agent #00312’s co-worker attended the team-building lunch that day, and in fact, came to the team lunch the following Friday as well. Over the next several months, he made efforts to attend other weekly Friday lunches as often as he could afford to do so. He was overheard telling another co-worker that he felt closer to his co-workers and more like a valued member of the team. He also expressed that he felt better about coming to work every day. GSSA Agent #00312 even observed this co-worker paying it forward by going out of his way to help other team members who were struggling with technology projects, which is his specialty area. This encouraged and motivated GSS Agent #00312 to do more secret missions/acts of kindness for her co-workers and others in the future.
Mission Accomplished, GSSA Agent #00312!
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