I’m a thank you card person. I know, it’s becoming outdated and that makes me sad. I recently read that a quick email or text is accepted as an adequate form of thank you because of its timeliness. I’m trying to get on board with this idea, but I still love putting pen to paper.

What’s not going out of style, and hopefully never will, is the act of saying thanks. And the act of recognizing people who are doing well in their work.

As the marketing director for RehabVisions, each month I collect our employees “kudos”—little notes of thanks and recognition sent to other co-workers that I publish in our monthly newsletter. It’s fun for me to read those and to realize how alike our various areas really are. As of late, there have been a slew of thanks to individuals for patiently assisting with transitions to different EMR software. It seems several of our departments have undergone this arduous task and recognized the extra work it meant for many. Likewise, there are always those kudos to clinicians who have gone beyond their job duties to help a patient—be it adapting a device to assist in a personal task, helping to clean a yard for someone who has been out of commission, or maybe just shoveling a snowy walk so people get in the door safely.

I like to imagine that as our employees read each other’s kudos, it encourages them a bit. They see the comradery among our different staffs, and I hope it reminds them that there are things their co-workers are doing that deserve recognition or maybe just a thank you.

It doesn’t need to be hand-written. It doesn’t need to be published somewhere. But perhaps we should all go out of our way today to say thank you or “you’re doing a great job” or recognize someone for something out of the ordinary. Perhaps if we commit to that, our day will be a little bit brighter. And after a long winter, I would really appreciate that.