Jenkins was affectionately called "Mr. George" by his workers, who were known as associates, rather than employees. He believed that workers who owned the business and shared in its success would work harder to exceed customer expectations, so he granted full-time workers stock in the company and shared the store's profits on a quarterly basis. These benefits were eventually expanded to part-timers who worked at least 1,000 hours in a year. Jenkins was also serious about employee satisfaction, so he almost always promoted from within the company, and allowed the workers to make many decisions for the department where they worked.
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Famous quotes containing the word associates:
“A man should not go where he cannot carry his whole sphere or society with him,Mnot bodily, the whole circle of his friends, but atmospherically. He should preserve in a new company the same attitude of mind and reality of relation, which his daily associates draw him to, else he is shorn of his best beams, and will be an orphan in the merriest club.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)