Calita has always been amazing, but became literally indispensable when we started working from home. In the midst of national and local turmoil, Calita stabilized our team. She was one of the “constants” – always enthusiastic, always present, and always willing to help. Within the scope of her role she joined our team huddles on Day 1 and added value as a Brain Safety Lab teammate.
Practically speaking, Calita made the technology work, kept us on time, and organized us by sending reminders and notes (always accompanied by a daily message of inspiration). She communicated proactively and always followed up. There are countless times Calita did the practical little things to keep us productive, from ordering microphone headsets to picking up something from the office to making sure no one is ever stuck in zoom waiting room purgatory. It’s hard to notice these things when everything is going right, but easy when Calita is away for the day and everything ends up going wrong!
In terms of her attitude and customer service orientation, you can’t find better. Calita’s a joy to work with. She has the most infectiously positive attitude of anyone on the team and shares her optimism often. She treats every single person with respect, younger or older, newbie or long-timer. She jokes with everyone and makes it easy for others to joke with her. She shows genuine care for others.
Most importantly, in the past 9 months on our team, in a very understated and safe way, Calita has become a role model for the team. She has helped the team deal with the hard stuff: social injustice and police shootings, the importance of social distancing, the health benefits of being physically active, and more. She redesigned her workspace, made a video for us, and inspired us to do the same (plus taught us some home office tricks!). She and Doris began the trend of setting physical activity goals and influenced the rest of the team to do the same, without ever telling them to. She organized a baby shower for Alexxus, about which Alexxus wrote “you guys made me feel special this morning … today I got [to] really smile and feel important.” Honestly, Alexxus is thanking the team but Calita deserves 99% of the credit for making her teammates feel special and important. Without Calita we would be much less!