We genuinely appreciate all of our hardworking employees, and always have. That's why we've decided to start a new tradition of awarding an Employee of the Month starting with July/August 2024. Perhaps no employee has ever worked more consistently than the recipient of this inaugural award. Read on, but be aware that this series of blogs is intended to be a combination of lighthearted parody and a factual look at the ongoings in our business.
We are pleased to award the first-ever Employee of the Month to the shop's air conditioning unit. This has been a hotter than typical summer so far, and without the shop's air conditioning and HVAC, we wouldn't be able to exist at this time of year.
Historically speaking and going purely by the numbers, this July was Portland's hottest on record dating back to 1940. Measured by mean daily temperature, which is an average of each day's high and low temperature for the entire month, the new July record stands at 74.4 degrees, just barely edging out the old record of 74.1 degrees set in 1985. That’s an entire 4.2 degrees above average for the entire month of July. August has started out warmer than normal too, setting several daily records in the first week of the month so far. The summers in the Pacific Northwest over the past 30 years have been getting hotter, and the increasing heat is impacting our industry from a growing standpoint to wildfires to product freshness and quality. And not everyone is fortunate enough to have access to AC to keep cool. But that's enough weather talk.
The AC unit is important for keeping the actual living people inside the shop safe and comfortable. It also makes the flowers and plants happy. The air conditioner came to us new when the shop moved into its current space in the Ladd Tower back in 2009. That makes it the third-longest-tenured employee at Gifford's Flowers. As a token of our appreciation, we will be changing the furnace filter next Wednesday and performing annual system maintenance just as soon as the hot season has passed.
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